Hacker News Reader

Comment by jnbiche | Hacker News Reader

Just think the impact that would have had if it had been divided up and given directly to each Haitian adult. The adult population of Haiti is roughly 6 million, so we're talking about almost $100 per adult Haitian. Roughly, it's about 1/8 of the per capita GDP of Haiti.

Imagine what you could if you were a poor American and received 1/8 of the American per capita GDP after a disaster (~6000 USD). That's a new roof, or a replacement vehicle, etc.

It's not life changing, but it would have been very significant, and massive in scale.

View on HN

Maybe not as much as you'd think. Haiti doesn't have goods for ready cash. Most of the relief issue was shipping goods into the country where needed.

But maybe good ol' capitalism would have worked then, if many people had some income to spend, an enterprising importer could have shipped some stuff out of China or something :) . Relief can be very inefficient in those cases.

I posted on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9666194 that jbniche's theory seems to be supported by the studies in that article.

Edit: I think a combination of both approaches might be needed. I'd really like to know what the Red Cross did and the effect it had, but we can't if they're being so opaque.

Good 'ol capitalism is more likely to operate the other way though: the since all my tenants/customers have significantly higher cash reserves than before and this village's supply chain and living options are actually even worse after the earthquake, I can put my prices up by even more way.

A fair amount of GiveDirectly's recipients' success comes from it only being a fraction of people in the village that receive the funds

Indeed.. I might have been a bit naïve. But the current model doesn't seem to work.

Watsi-style disruption might be the other option, but it doesn't scale for fast relief.

And what happens to the local farmers and roofers when you start shipping in goods and handing them out for free? They have a few more bags of rice but are out of business, and dependent on the next aid shipment for their other necessities. If you want to ship goods, then ship them to the harbor and sell them to local truck drivers for slightly more than the locally produced equivalent.

Roofers install roofs, they'd love more free raw materials.

I don't think Post-quake Haiti had a surplus of unsold consumer goods.

Food, clean water, and shelter are important after a disaster... not cash.

Who are you going to buy "a new roof" from when everything is in shambles?

What value does money have when everyone has the same amount, but no one has the things you want to buy?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com