The Way We Live Now: reflecting on the long-term implications of our situation. And they ain't good. They just ain't. There's no getting around it. The currency's not bouncing back. The wages are down for good. And Haiti's fucked forever.

Hey China, why you keep your currency so cheap? Man, quit being so cheap! Cheapness never wins.

But don't just expect it to change. Change is not the way of the world. We didn't just have a recession. We had a correction. You didn't just see your wages go down; you're seeing a "steep, lasting drop in wages." That means you get laid off as a scientist and get rehired as a sandwich artist. That kind of steep drop in wages.

You think you have it bad? At least you ain't Haitian. Even after the world has given as much aid as it really cares to give, Haitians still feel stuck in poverty. Probably because they are stuck in poverty. And no amount of aid is going to change that. Not that they're getting a huge extra new amount of aid anyway.

Haitians would love to be hired as sandwich artists. But they're not going to be. Not yet at least. This is only the first earthquake anniversary. Give it a few more decades.

[Photo via AP]