by Jack
During her tenure as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton moved to roll back impoverished Haiti’s minimum wage of 61 cents an hour to 32 cents an hour. She intervened on behalf of the U.S. garment-makers industry who opposed any minimum wage hikes. Eventually Haiti’s minimum wage hike was defeated in favor of big business.
To be absolutely fair Mrs. Clinton was not the only top official involved in this, but she was a key player. The Obama Administration signed off on it and Obama himself ultimately must take full responsibility for this slave wage.
Want to know my sources? Try looking it up on every major news outlet on the net, radio and television or better yet…try Hoaxbusters. If you are a democrat and a liberal why would you vote for Hillary knowing she kept poor black Haitian’s down with a virtual slave wage? Why would you do that and risk being called a hypocrite?
Yes Clinton is a corporatist. Americans need to examine what the Sec of State Job really is. Both parties.
All would be surprised and both parties are corrupt
Well, this should be a wake-up call for anyone who thinks American imperialism doesn’t exist, or that it’s only been conducted by one political party.
he way the U.S. has treated Haiti over the past two centuries and change has been horrendous. Snopes has a great article explaining the move by Clinton’s State Department, as well as the sordid history of U.S.-Haiti relations:
http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-suppressed-haitis-minimum-wage/
Imperialism Chris?
You have to be using a very broad definition of Imperialism if you are going to call efforts to protect US citizens caught in the middle of what amounts to a war for independence with France and England, American Imperialism. And this during a time when slavery was still a contentious issue and included black slave owners, Arabs and blacks who sold blacks into slavery, and a white slave trade.
Haiti’s leadership and government have been the major problem for Haitian citizens:
US relations with Haiti have been rocky but good grief we were never imperialists. And their own government was much more abusive than any American policy or any American business person who at least provided jobs for oppressed people living in terrible conditions.
The hate America perspective is like swiss cheese, full of holes.
It would be interesting to know the explanation given at the time by Hillary and the state department. This decision didn’t come out of the blue. Bill Clinton was very involved in the recovery, which hasn’t gone well and just slid off the radar. The UN involvement is questionable as well: “Haitians launch new lawsuit against UN over thousands of cholera deaths”
Let’s not go nuts blaming the US for Haiti’s problems.
I do not “hate America,” and pointing out our country’s flaws does not equal hate, so ditch the strawmen.
What business it is of ours whether Haiti raises its minimum wage? The US pressured Haiti to lower its wages to help American business interests. That’s not a “broad” definition of imperialism, that’s what imperialism is; unduly welding our might to pressure another country to bow to our will, not for purposes of liberation, but for purely monetary reasons. And this was going on under Bush, too, it’s just more hypocritical when lefties do it.
You brought Imperialism into the conversation. Correcting the record when an extremely pejorative term to describe America, “Imperialism,” is used is necessary and important. In my opinion that thinking is indicative of the radical leftist indoctrination designed to insight hatred or disdain for America.
I don’t think you hate America, Chris. I wrote that the perspective is hateful toward America: “The hate America perspective is like swiss cheese, full of holes. I also don’t think you know who the heck your party’s power base is or what they’ve done to try to shape the historical record. The current President is one of the worst.
Imperialism: a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means
You are stretching the definition as well as misrepresenting it’s historical meaning. Influence is one thing; power and influence is quite another. In America the colonists were under the power of the king. They were taxed, English soldiers enforced English law. Nothing close to that was going on in this instance.
While I agree that our government has no business setting wages in Haiti, it is also true that our government has no business setting wages at all. Wages are driven by market forces, skill levels, and a business owners ability to pay. A worker’s experience and skills are also a consideration. There’s no way that government ordering a one size fits all wage makes sense in the real word.
None of us knows the reason Hillary chose to butt in or why Haiti chose to go along, if it did. One thing that may have been a factor for the state department is the enormous amount of money we spent in Haiti in conjunction with the fact that Haiti is a nation saddled with corruption. Was raising the minimum wage a way for corrupt leaders to siphon off some of that aid through imposed taxes that they then pocketed? Also, was the government’s heavy handed wage increase hurting small businesses we were trying to help…you have to consider local business people.
There’s a lot we don’t know. Assuming the purpose was higher profits for the businesses is natural but not necessarily accurate, and certainly not done from an informed position.
Now we could say that America should just not offer aid to developing nations but I doubt that would be your position. $3.6 billion in aid does buy a bit of influence. We need to know the motive behind the decision.
Articles of interest:
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund spends All It’s Money, leaves Haiti
A Look at Hillary (and Bill) Clinton’s Past in Haiti
That last on smacks of corporatism from the state department and in conjunction with the Clinton foundation…I’m sure the FBI is looking into it.
“And this was going on under Bush, too…”
Examples please?
I recall an example in 2007 when Pelosi was involved in a similar situation:
We are all hypocrites. We are not all so quick to characterize America as an imperial nation.
Oh good lord.
In 95 I was deployed to Haiti. We worked really hard trying to bring stability but we knew it would go south as soon as we left. They are the second oldest democracy in our hemisphere but plagued with corruption from those at the top who sell out to other countries. Very sad.
I’d love to get into this conversation more when I’m not in the middle of a congressional race. Great topic though…
Shoot us a reminder Steve when you’re done with election concerns.
Brought to us from Salon, a Bernie supporter entreats the FBI to complete it’s investigation for the sake of the nation as well as the Democrat Party. Very good!