Hait & Chile, Wealth & Poverty

Economic opportunity & social justice. Funny how the latter ends up a pyramid of human skulls. (Hat Tip: Insty)

Granted, Haiti's had a dearth of any kind of justice. But even if the Haitian government was competent, it might not have made any difference:

Chile also has some of the world's strictest building codes. That makes sense for a country that straddles two massive tectonic plates. But having codes is one thing, enforcing them is another. The quality and consistency of enforcement is typically correlated to the wealth of nations. The poorer the country, the likelier people are to scrimp on rebar, or use poor quality concrete, or lie about compliance. In the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, thousands of children were buried under schools also built according to code.

The state can enforce. It cannot create, nor lift one single person from drudgery and exploitation. That requires wealth.