It just doesn’t make sense to follow the cries of every child in the dark. Jesus said “for the poor you will always have with you.” We simply can’t spend our way out of poverty…although Obama sure is claiming that is true; grownups who know better know that increasing your debt does not increase your net worth, or change the dire circumstances for the poor.

At the Daily Capitalist, Jeff Harding writes in a brief article entitled Capitalism Saves Lives and Haiti is Proof, saying that-Haiti is proof that capitalism saves lives. Capitalism is by far the most “benevolent choice” regarding that ‘crying child’. Harding then quotes “this wonderful post from George Mason University Economist Don Boudreaux“:

The ultimate tragedy in Haiti isn’t the earthquake; it’s that country’s lack of economic freedom. The earthquake simply but catastrophically revealed the inhuman consequences of this fact.

Registering 7.0 on the Richter scale, the Haitian earthquake killed tens of thousands of people. But the quake that hit California’s Bay Area in 1989 was also of magnitude 7.0. It killed only 63 people.

This difference is due chiefly to Americans’ greater wealth. With one of the freest economies in the world, Americans build stronger homes and buildings, and have better health-care and better search and rescue equipment. In contrast, burdened by one of the world’s least-free economies, Haitians cannot afford to build sturdy structures. Nor can they afford the health-care and emergency equipment that we take for granted here in the U.S.

These stark facts should be a lesson for those who insist that human habitats are made more dangerous, and human lives put in greater peril, by freedom of commerce and industry.

Seems even people who characterize themselves as “conservatives” seem to have forgotten what keeps children from starving and suffering…and being sold into slavery: good old-fashioned free enterprise.

Rush said this, and apparently fell under attack for having said it…but I didn’t originally get it from him. I got it from my own common sense. But I’m getting it from him now…so I can quote him from here-

All I said was, if you paid your income taxes, that’s how you donate to government for aid, and sure enough, here comes Obama announcing $100 million from the government for aid to Haiti, fine and dandy. But, you paid for it, it’s your taxes. All I said was if you’re going to donate do it outside the government, pure and simple.

That sounds reasonable, it’s one of the reasons conservatives give more to charity than liberals-because the paradigm is different-liberals think it’s government’s job to ‘take care of you’ from cradle to grave…then Rush reads from theDavid Brooks’ article at the New York Times-The Underlying Tragedy :

giving aid money to countries does not help them grow. Here it is right here in the New York Times, and nobody’s mad at them. Do I need to read it? Yeah, let me.

“On Oct. 17, 1989, a major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Bay Area in Northern California. Sixty-three people were killed. This week, a major earthquake, also measuring a magnitude of 7.0, struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Red Cross estimates that between 45,000 and 50,000 people have died. This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: ‘You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.’

If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty. He’s going to have to acknowledge a few difficult truths. The first of those truths is that we don’t know how to use aid to reduce poverty. Over the past few decades, the world has spent trillions of dollars to generate growth in the developing world. The countries that have not received much aid, like China, have seen tremendous growth and tremendous poverty reductions. The countries that have received aid, like Haiti, have not.”

Oh, my gosh, this is deja vu, except I’m the one that said it. Using our own war on poverty, how much money have we given to the poor in this country, and we still have the same percentages of poor people — and we’re never supposed to examine the results, right? Only the good intentions of the givers!

And, of course, the givers are us. Our back pockets are looted by our own government, and the money is redistributed — and as Mr. Brooks is saying here, there is no upside to this. “In the recent anthology ‘What Works in Development?,’ a group of economists try to sort out what we’ve learned. The picture is grim. There are no policy levers that consistently correlate to increased growth. There is nearly zero correlation between how a developing economy does one decade and how it does the next. There is no consistently proven way to reduce corruption. Even improving governing institutions doesn’t seem to produce the expected results. … . More than 10,000 organizations perform missions of this sort in Haiti. …

And has it changed their circumstances at all? So what is truly compassionate, then? Throwing good money after bad?

And the other article -from NRO-Impact of Obama’s Charity Tax Ten Times Worse Than Current Recession

I’m not sure why people are hemming and hawing about this (particularly conservatives who are supposed to understand concepts like ‘free enterprise’ and ‘capitalism’, not to mention “charity”)-I’ve said it over and over again…it doesn’t make sense to throw money at a socialist country when their system is not set up to allow people to “help themselves”.

Total aid to Haiti since 1990 comes to 6 billion, or about $1000 for each citizen.

Haiti’s budget every year includes a tremendous amount of money from the U.S. and Obama just committed $100 million more that we don’t have.

Here’s someone else on a discusson forum talking about the same point:

This might upset people to hear this but I don’t see the point in giving money to Hati because truthfully the country was a dump before the earthquake and I think no matter how much money you donate the people’s quality of life is still going to be very poor. The country is flooded with crime, rape and murder and in light of the earthquake probably an increase in looting.

It doesn’t matter how much money you give, Haiti has recieved aid in the past because after decades of bad government allowing crime to go on, rape itself was only made a criminal offence in 2005 the crime becomes part of a country’s culture and many people’s way of life.

What good is the aid we give them? We’ll fix them up a little because the pictures of their suffering will make us feel bad and then we will leave only for the same problems to continue. Who wants to live like that? What kind of life are we leaving them in? If I lived on Haiti I would probably rather die than be barely kept alive only to live a life in a poorly built slum, poor education and live in a country filled with crime and poverty. Where’s the happiness and purpose in my life? What have I got to look forward too?

Do you think the money you donate today is going to help this little girl in Haiti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnklOtfJRSE ? Likely is it isn’t, she’s still going to be a slave.

So tell me? How can you feel a sense of pride in donating a few pounds knowing your only helping continue the existence of these poor people? No matter what you do your efforts are fruitless, some things even money can’t fix.

We’re sending 2,000 of our marines over there…because America has turned into the world’s social workers; throwing money at problems that will never be solved that way…to people who just want more of it and have no concept as to how to make their own lives better…because the system they live in won’t allow it.

30-40% of Haiti’s budget is ALREADY comprised of foreign aid (welfare to the whole country)-most of which comes from the United States….but Haiti still has 50% illiteracy and over 80% of its people were living in poverty in 2003, while 1% of the population controls nearly 50% of the country’s wealth. Sounds like one of those systems where there is no middle class…a dictatorship where everyone is equally poor….just the kind of system that Obama is transforming America into. In the meantime, people are desperate to help…and look at how grateful the people are for it:

Gregory of Yardale at Moonbattery explains the mindset there fairly well with-Why Haiti is a Hellhole, pointing to this article. It reminds me of the people after Katrina who were literally shooting at the people who were coming to help. It’s ridiculous:

Angry Haitians block roads with corpses: witness

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Angry Haitians set up roadblocks with corpses in Port-au-Prince to protest at the delay in emergency aid reaching them after a devastating earthquake, an eyewitness said

So, in these people’s minds, it makes sense to protest that you aren’t getting aid fast enough… by blocking the people from getting aid to you…. with corpses!

But this is what the moonbat left has indoctrinated into them. “Don’t help yourselves. The way to get anything is demand that others take care of you, and then bitch and complain about the quality of the help you receive.”

This is the same mindset that had people in New Orleans who could have walked an hour to higher ground complaining about getting flooded out after Katrina. This is the same mindset that produces near-riot conditions when people queue up from handouts in Detroit.

And it’s all aided and abetted by the moonbat mindset of parochialism; that it’s compassionate to keep the poor of Detroit and New Orleans and the impoverished of Haiti dependent on handouts and foreign aid; and that because of some imagined grievance, that they are not only entitled to endless welfare, but have a right to be indignant if it is not delivered at a level or in a manner that is satisfactory.

Read the rest.

And this at the Wall Street Journal-No Burials for Haiti’s Dead

Graphic: Aid to Haiti in limbo

Here’s a list of who’s giving aid to Haiti from CBS News:

• The U.S. government is forking over $100 million for the relief effort and is sending ships, helicopters, transport planes and 2,000 Marines. (are the ships, helicopters, transport planes and marines in addition to that $100 million?)
• Canada is sending $5 million Canadian (US$4.8 million) and matching contributions by individual Canadians to eligible charitable organizations up to a total of $50 million Canadian (US$47 million). Ottawa also is sending two navy ships, helicopters, transport planes and a disaster response team.
• The World Bank is providing a $100 million grant, and the U.N. is sending $10 million.
• Britain is sending $10 million. A four-person government assessment team and 71 rescue specialists along with search dogs and heavy equipment arrived Thursday.
• Australia has pledged $9.3 million;
• Norway, about 30 million kroner ($5.3 million);
• Japan, up to $5 million; Italy, euro1 million ($1.46 million); and the European Commission, euro3 million ($4.37 million).
• The Netherlands and the Italian bishops’ conference have each donated euro2 million.
• Denmark has donated 10 million kroner ($1.9 million) and Finland is giving euro1.25 million ($1.8 million).
• South Korea has pledged aid worth $1 million.
• Irish telecommunications company Digicel said it would donate $5 million and help repair the phone network.
• Spain has pledged euro3 million ($4.37 million), and sent rescue teams and 100 tons of equipment.
• Germany gave euro1.5 million ($2.17 million) and sent an immediate response team.
• India and China will each donate $1 million and China is sending a 60-member relief team with sniffer dogs.
• Sweden has offered 6 million kronor ($850,000), along with tents, water purification equipment and medical aid. It is also sending a team to build a new base to replace the U.N.’s destroyed headquarters.
• Venezuela has sent doctors, firefighters and rescue workers.
• Mexico will send doctors, search-and-rescue dogs and infrastructure experts.
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy said 400 staff from the public security authority are being sent, as well a ship with two surgical operating units, 50 beds for injured and earth-moving equipment.
• Iceland and Portugal are each sending more than 30 rescue workers.
• Taiwan has sent 23 rescue workers and two tons of aid and equipment.
• Israel plans to open a field hospital and is sending 220 rescue workers.
• A Swiss rescue team is arriving overland from the Dominican Republic. A flight carrying 40-50 tons of aid goods is planned for Friday.