Why not Python?

What's wrong with Python?

>>14
Haskell is almost as fast as C.

>>15
Not quite, it's currently almost as fast as Java:
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=all

But wastes way less memory than Java.

>>15,17
Stop fooling yourself. Most of those programs are only nominally written in Haskell. The actual language used mostly consists of Data.ByteString.Unsafe and !, and is generally about as pleasant and readable as optimized x86 assembly.

>>19
I've read somewhere that those benchmarks were made strict because the lazy ones cut corners and didn't do the same amount work that their equivalents in, say, Java did, thus being unfairly faster. Allegedly the strictness was not introduced to gain speed, but to lose it.

>>20
^{[citation needed]}

>>21
I've read somewhere that those benchmarks were made strict because the lazy ones cut corners and didn't do the same amount work that their equivalents in, say, Java did, thus being unfairly faster. Allegedly the strictness was not introduced to gain speed, but to lose it.^[1]

References              
1. http://www.mail-archive.com/haskell@haskell.org/msg18863.html