No one made Haiti poor

It is the result of wealth not being made. That may well have been
the result of actions by all sorts of people of right and left, thugs
and even the well meaning. Everything from supporting grossly
incompetent dictators to demanding reparations and stupidity about
trade.

But the basic point remains. They’re in the Malthusian trap. GDP per
capita is (at PPP) around $1,300. That’s not notably different from
England in 1600. Indeed, it’s not notably different from England in 900
AD, from the GDP per capita in the Roman Empire.

Haiti’s poverty is not something that man hath wrought. It’s the result of what man hath not wrought.

In the longer term what they need is just what everyone else needs
and has needed. Economic development. More factories, more trade, more,
dare I say it, of that liberal capitalism stuff that dragged our own
forefathers up out of the horrors of that $2 a day destitution.