Haiti - Some Numbers - 6 Day Donations vs. Wages and GDP

[jberryhill]

Jan 19 - Charitable giving up to $210 million in one week:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Dispatch/market-dispatches.aspx?post=1562809

"As of 6 p.m. ET yesterday, donations exceeded $210 million in the six days after the earthquake"


That appears to be US private donations, and does not include government committments.

Compare:

http://www.undispatch.com/node/9443

"Haiti’s average annual wage is $400."


It's not clear to me if that is per capita income, or average annual wage of working Haitians.

But, assuming it is per capita...

There are roughly 10 million Haitians, less those lost in the disaster.

$210M / $10M = $21 in donations per Haitian in six days.

$400 / 52 weeks = $7.69 average Haitian weekly wage.

That's a factor of 2.73.


Now here's an interesting graph of Haitian GDP:

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:HTI&dl=en&hl=en&q=haitian+gdp

2008 GDP was $6.95B, which works out to roughly $133.7M per week.

In other words, the US private donations in the first six days, not counting government contributions, exceeded the weekly average GDP by a factor of 1.57.

I don't really know what those numbers mean, but that strikes me as impressive.

(and, for comparison, Google's quarterly profit was $2B which, annualized, would put Google profit $2B ahead of Haitan 2008 GDP)

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere

that is what that means...

(No, not shitting it here, they are)

Most Haitians live on a buck a day or less... or rather subsist.

Of course there is this top tier that lives very well thank you, and has private security, cheap help and two passports. oh and pays almost no taxes, if at all.

[jberryhill]

2. Yes... that phrase is the center square in "Haiti Reporting Bingo" /nt

[Electric Monk]

3. Saw on CNN (iirc) the "average annual income" (again, unclear if per capita) was $860

which changes the math slightly, but your point still stands.

One thing you didn't take into account is donations from countries other than America, which changes the math once more, but again, your main point still stands. Haiti and most Haitians are incredibly poor.

[jberryhill]

4. Oh I know it was just US private donations

I was curious to get a handle on the scale of earthquake relief to the normal economy which, yes, sucks.

I'm wondering what happens when "relief" exceeds the normal economic activity by a factor of, say, possibly 2 or higher.

I'm not an economist or a sociologist, but wondering how this plays out in terms of a "reset button" for Haiti.