Robert Murphy describes his week in Haiti, volunteering with Hands On Disaster Response (HODR):
During my short visit, one of the major themes relayed to us from the Haitians who interacted with our base was that the locals viewed us with suspicion. In particular, when they would see a team of HODR volunteers engaging in literal hard labor, using sledgehammers and wheelbarrows to remove rubble from a collapsed residence, many of the Haitians apparently resented the fact that we were “stealing their jobs.” In other words, the Haitians — where unemployment is apparently 90 percent — thought they should be getting paid to remove the rubble from their collapsed homes.
When those who were affiliated with HODR would explain to the people that we were all volunteers, some of them were still suspicious. They speculated that even if we weren’t being paid right then, we would probably be paid when we returned back home.
Now here’s what struck me about all this: isn’t it incredible that after their neighborhoods got wiped out, and hundreds of thousands of Haitians died, that many Haitians were apparently devoting a lot of mental effort to speculating on how much we were getting paid to cart away their rubble? (Ironically, when I got back to Nashville, I heard a lady complaining on a local radio talk show that illegal immigrants were signing up for the paid positions to clean up the flooded Opry Mills mall, thereby “stealing jobs that could have gone to Tennesseans.” So the Haitians aren’t unique in this respect.)
Please note, I’m not whining about a lack of gratitude; my purpose in going to Haiti wasn’t to get a pat on the head from someone who just lost his house and possibly much of his family. But what I am saying is that it makes sense, in a perverse way, that Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere. If this is the predominant mindset, how could anyone start a successful business? I would imagine the jealousy and gossip of his neighbors would be unbearable.
(Hat tip to Bryan Caplan.)