In a sense, then, the low wage development model the United States has imposed on Haiti is a continuation of colonial domination going back centuries. The U.S. Navy invaded Haitian waters twenty-six times between 1849 and 1915. The low wage, export oriented development model is only one component of a larger economic model that the United States and powerful institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank promote. The model is based on the theory that the market, freed from government restrictions, is the most efficient way for societies to allocate resources and determine trading relations between individuals, firms, and nations. In the United States, the wealthiest one percent owns a mere forty percent of the nation's wealth.
Privatization is all the rage here, too.
At the federal level, there is a serious proposal to privatize the social security system. Manchester has privatized its school janitors. Concord is planning to outsource its school nurses, largely to evade the decent salaries earned by women who have years of seniority. It is worth considering the privatization craze through the lenses of race and gender. The civil service has long been an area in which it has been possible for women and people of color to get jobs, often with the protection of unions.