Hopes for Haitian recovery

In the seven days since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti, destroyed countless buildings and killed tens of thousands of people, a number of important developments have been garnering a great deal of attention.

Among the issues that have attracted the greatest amount of notice have been the question of how the relief effort will be coordinated given that the country has very poor transportation infrastructure, the concern that desperation will give way to widespread violence and looting, and the question of who, if anyone, is actually in charge of the country.

All of these issues are of great importance, especially in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

However, as the relief effort begins to become better coordinated, as the remaining survivors are found and as the unaffected begin to slowly (but inevitably) turn their attention to other concerns, the most important question of all will come to the fore: What does Haiti do now?

The answer to this question will be inextricably linked to the answer to another important question: How did Haiti come to be in such poor shape that its condition was already commonly described as disastrous before the quake?

Although there are myriad potential answers to this question, the country’s unfortunate location near a major fault line (and in the path of a host of powerful storms) and its colonial past, history of racial problems, and legacy of slavery are largely irrelevant to the question of what the country should do going forward.

Unfortunately, Haiti does not have the option of moving away from the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault, moving out of the path of Atlantic hurricanes, or erasing from its history the French colonization, the institution of slavery, or the scourge of racial tension.

Aside from this, however, there are a number of identifiable wrongs that can indeed be righted, most of them having to do with the activities of the Haitian government and the behavior of the country’s elite.

According to the Heritage Foundation’s report on its 2009 Index of Economic Freedom, Haiti has a number of serious economic issues that, if resolved, could make a major contribution to a potential rise to prosperity.

Foremost among the country’s economic problems (prior to the quake) were poor protection of property rights and epidemic corruption. These problems, while partially due to a dearth of modern commercial laws, could be largely mitigated by improved enforcement of existing laws intended to protect intellectual and other property and more uniform enforcement of regulations.

Haiti also has significant problems in the areas of business freedom and labor freedom. Easing of restrictions on hiring, firing and varying hours could improve prospects for employment, an essential element of recovery for a country with 25 percent unemployment.  Additionally, a dramatic streamlining of the process of starting and licensing a business would do much to encourage foreign investment.

The above changes would undoubtedly improve economic conditions for the impoverished country, which would likely contribute to an increase in government revenues that could be used for improving the country’s infrastructure and education systems.

Of course, none of the above reforms will come to pass if the country’s elite class continues to kick the can of reform down the road, promising to modernize regulations, standardize enforcement of statutes, and improve enforcement of property rights at some ever elusive later date.

If Haiti is to emerge from this disaster as the prosperous, vibrant and free country we and the Haitian people know it is capable of becoming, its elites must come to the realization that both their futures and those of their countrymen will be better in a free and open environment based on individual liberty and the rule of law.