Americans across the country are opening their hearts for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti in the way they know best: opening their wallets. About $10 million dollars has already poured in, and while I'm sure it'll provide some much-needed temporary relief (though even that's gonna be hard in a country that's basically become an anarchy overnight and whose transportation infrastructure has been decimated), I tend to think it's just going to be putting a band-aid on a gaping wound.
Tyler Cowen's had some interesting posts on the longer term picture for Haiti, and it ain't pretty. There is, of course, one easy way we could help Haitians a great deal: repeal all tariffs and trade barriers to Haitian goods, and allow Haitians to immigrate freely to the US. This, obviously, will never happen.
At work the other day we had a meeting and they revealed a company plan to match all donations to Global Impact for the benefit of Haitians. Afterword, I encouraged everybody to contact the White House and tell them to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitian immigrants. A coworker turned to me and said, "What, so they can come here and take our jobs?" The funny thing is that the woman who said it is herself an immigrant. I guess as soon as they're in the door they want it shut.
People like the idea of making minor sacrifices to help faraway, poor people, but truly helping them by giving them the same rights, privileges, and opportunities we Americans enjoy could lead to all sorts of unpleasant consequences like having to earn one's position instead of being entitled to it cuz the other applicants weren't born in the right part of the world, or having to see and even talk with poorer ethnic people, they might even demand to be treated with respect! Those selfish greedy Haitians.
In most people, xenophobia and racism are still stronger motives than compassion and humanitarianism.
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