The recent earthquake which devastated Haiti has altered their materialistic values and way of life. The earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people and also many homes. Before the earthquake, Haiti was still a very poverty stricken country and the earthquake only made things worse. Haiti is even falling behind as far as progression goes from the other 3rd world countries. Haiti is very different economically than the United States this and this is why i think the change in materialistic values are different too.
- The majority of Haitians live off of $2 or less The average American makes about $84 a day)
- Over 225,000 children have been forced to become unpaid house "servants"
- 66% of the labor in Haiti is on small farms
- Haiti's richest 1% form almost half the wealth of the country (United States top 1% owns 30% of wealth)
Those are just a few examples of the differences of Haiti's economic status compared to our own. This will directly affect the Haitians values as well. The majority of Haiti is living in a beat up sad excuse for a shelter and are doing anything they can to just survive. They will only make it 1 step on the value ladder which is just basic essentials for life. Many people in Haiti suffer from constant hunger and many other things that relate to poverty. Where as here in America we don't even think about how hard it is for some countries to get drinkable water or any kind of food. This will make Haiti desire more of the basic everyday things (to us at least) more than what Americans desire (i-pods, an A in a class, etc...)
