This article is from the March/April 2010 issue of Dollars &
Sense: Real World Economics, available at http://www.dollarsands
ense.org/archives/2010/0310kennedytilly.html This article is
from the March/April 2010 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine. at
a 30% discount. Haiti’s Fault Lines: Made in the U.S.A. The
mainstream media got half the story right about Haiti. Reporters
observed that Haiti’s stark poverty intensified the devastation
caused by the recent earthquake. True: hillside shantytowns,
widespread concrete construction without rebar reinforcement, a
grossly inadequate road network, and a health-care system mainly
designed to cater to the small elite all contributed mightily to
death and destruction. But what caused that poverty? U.S.
readers and viewers might be forgiven for concluding that some
inexplicable curse has handed Haiti corrupt and unstable
governments, unproductive agriculture, and widespread
illiteracy. Televangelist Pat Robertson simply took this line of
“explanation” to its nutty, racis