20776: Antoine Re: 20686: Antoine Re: 20604: Esser: Steve Forbes (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Guy S. Antoine <webmaster@haitiforever.com>

In message #20686, I covered the first three prescriptions
from Steve Forbes to resolve Haiti's economic problems.
They were:

1) Tell the IMF to get lost, immediately.
"No representative of that agency should be allowed near
Port-au-Prince," says Steve Forbes, but could they come
near as Jamaica, I wonder.

2) The U.S. should forgive past debts, "if basic economic
reforms are put in place".  These probably include Haiti's
forgiving $21 billion debt from France and the gold taken
from Haiti's treasury by the U.S.  That's basic.

3) Haiti should enact a flat income tax.  That's probably the
easiest to implement, since Haiti's income is already flat.

We now come to the last three (seriously).

4) Haiti should make the U.S. dollar its legal tender.
According to Steve, this would "prevent politicians from
plundering people via inflation".  But you know, Steve,
there is more than one way to skin a cat or to pluck a chicken.
Shouldn't the goal be to stop politicians from plundering,
period?  Anyway, can someone exemplify for me how
dollarization prevents stealing by inflation?

But I have a better idea.  Let's fix the value of the U.S.
dollar to, let's say, five gourdes.  That would sound the
death knell of the "Haitian dollar", restore the luster of
the gourde, and create millionaires through the nine
departments in short order.  Minimum wage laws would
have real teeth and wood could be imported to construct
more seaworthy vessels (for drug policing, of course).

Where's the drawback?  We kill the pesky Haitian dollar,
we increase the buying power of all Haitians, we quintuple
our imports with a flat import tax to keep the IMF at bay,
and we put a turtle on our new currency at a par with the
U.S. eagle.  Sounds perfect to me.

5)  "The government should also make it easy for people
to set up businesses."  I think that this means that we
should make a serious attempt to bring more of the
informal economy into the mainstream.  Then again,
don't trust me (or do trust me), I am not an economist.
Does Steve mean moving forward, in the way of setting
up new business, or re-absorbing completely the informal
economy?  I am not sure how this works.  Would we have
to issue a business certificate to every man, woman, and
child over the age of six?

Actually, of all Steve's proposals, this is the one I like
the best (along with the forgiving of past debts, which
is truly a moral imperative, when one considers that
rich nations have indubitably taken FAR MORE from
than poor nations than they have put in, historically.
Good men should be thankful to the Haitians, rather
than the inverse.  If only people were not so ignorant
of History and the processes that got them where they
are now.)

To implement this would require the creation of
lots of administrative jobs, with real work to do for
a change.  It would vastly increase our countrymen's
productivity to match perhaps our women's).  Finally,
it would greatly diversify business ownership in Haiti
(and any general strike would likely precipitate the fall
of any "bad boy" government without having to call on
cannibals or freedom fighters).

I absolutely love the idea, BUT how does a government,
with no reserves except the good will of the U.S.A. set
it in motion?  I may be unfairly cynical, here.  I very
nearly forgot about the good will of Haiti's business
class and its willingness to expand its base.  Let's have
a run at it, fellows.


And last, but not least:

6) "Washington should also encourage Haiti to institute
a formal, inclusive property rights system."

> This would turn the majority of that country's squatters
> into legal property owners, who would have the rights
> and protections that we in the U.S. and other Western
> nations take for granted. Remember that, historically,
> much of U.S. property law basically codified what people
> were already doing, i.e., it turned American "squatters"
> into "pioneers."

I confess that Steve Forbes completely lost me on that one,
unless he thinks that Haitians are squatting on the French
who are squatting on the Spaniards who are squatting on
the Indians.  On the other hand, if rebels can be termed
"freedom fighters" by our government, so too Haitian
peasants be baptized (stay away, Terry Snow) "pioneers"
by the government who would then proceed to settle
property rights and implement a comprehensive policy
of agricultural reform, housing, and regulation of
ownership for eight million people and counting.  That's
a tall task indeed for any government, one that is fraught
with danger, if we let history be our guide.

Steve Forbes, though, makes it sound easy.  I wonder...
Once Foley accepts the honorary post of Foreign Minister
of Haiti, could we then have Steve as the new U.S.
Ambassador?  Hmm...  It's worth putting a bug in Bush's ear.

(How sweet!  A coup d'état in reverse.)

To conclude my dissertation, I can think of no words
better than Steve's himself:

"Haiti doesn't lack for entrepreneurial energy, as the vibrant
and increasingly prosperous Haitian community in the U.S.
attests. The country, though, badly needs institutions,
monetary/tax laws and arrangements that will enable these
entrepreneurial impulses to find a productive outlet at home.
 As businesses proliferate and incomes begin to rise, an
emerging middle class will develop the civil customs and
institutions that make a country less likely to fall into the
grip of kleptomaniacal thugs. The nation can then finally
achieve a destiny worthy of its heroic overthrow of its French
slave masters and its dramatic defeat of Napoleon's troops
two centuries ago."

I absolutely, positively, cannot disagree, Steve.  I'll be calling
your secreatary for an appointment, in the morning.

Guy S. Antoine
Windows on Haiti
http://haitiforever.com