On March 3, 2024, Haiti’s government declared a state of emergency after gang attacks on the country’s two largest prisons resulted in massive prison breaks that saw thousands of inmates escape. According to news reports, gangs control 80 percent of this impoverished nation’s capital Port-au-Prince. On a different, but interestingly related note, the CEOs of two food giants made comments that rattled American consumers. First, Kirk Tanner, the CEO of Wendy’s restaurant chain, suggested that the company would explore using “dynamic pricing” such that the cost of their menu items would change throughout the day depending on demand. This is reminiscent of the pricing strategy used by companies such as Uber and Lyft, which charge more for their ride-sharing service depending on the time of day, week, or year. The second food CEO is Gary Pilnick, the head of cereal giant Kellogg’s, which makes, among other things, Frosted Flakes, Raisin Bran, and Coco Crispies. Pilnick suggested that Americans struggling with high food prices just eat cereal for dinner. Not surprisingly, this comment is compared to Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake!” These seemingly different stories are, in fact, all related to the economy. Let’s take a moment to consider this from a sociological perspective.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is a country in absolute poverty. It is a place in which individuals or families do not have enough resources to meet their basic survival needs. What are the basic needs of people? Food, water, and shelter. To put their poverty into perspective, consider dirt cookies, a staple food for many Haitians. These “cookies” are made from a combination of dirt, oil, and salt. They are baked on the ground in the sun and sold in food markets to people who can’t afford other staples like bread or rice. Note that this isn’t “clean” Home Depot potting soil. This is dirt from the ground along the side of a road.
The story behind Haiti’s poverty is long. Once ruled by slavery, a closed stratified system in which slaves and owners exist, Haitians fought and won their independence from France in 1804. That victory came at a price. In 1825, just as Haiti was stabilizing, France sent warships to the island to demand payment for their losses. In today’s dollars, Haiti was forced to pay France an estimated $560 million for their freedom. According to experts, the overall economic loss for Haiti amounts to an estimated $115 billion. It took the nation of Haiti 122 years to pay off its debt. This is so illogical it is mind-blowing. It would be as if someone held you prisoner, forced you to work, beat you, starved you, and sold your children, but you had to pay them for the experience. Imagine how Haiti could have responded differently if the country had that money when the massive earthquakes hit in 2010 and 2021. If Haiti had this money in its coffers, its global stratification, the stratification between people living in different nations, would not nearly be so great.
