Listening to the barking dogs: property law against poverty in the non-West

Cato Institute ^ | Jan 1, 2002 | Hernando de Soto

[Ray76]

Imagine a country where nobody can identify who owns what, people cannot be made to pay their debts, resources cannot conveniently be turned into money, ownership cannot be divided through documents, descriptions of assets are not standardized and can not be easily compared, and the rules that govern property vary from neighborhood to neighborhood or even from street to street. You have just put yourself into the life of a developing country or former communist nation; more precisely, you have imagined life for 80 per cent of its population, which is marked off as sharply from its Westernized elite as black and white South Africans were once separated by apartheid.

Over the last 10 years, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Third World and former Soviet Union nations - where 5 billion of the world’s 6 billion people live - carried out the macroeconomic policies the West recommended: they balanced their budgets, cut subsidies, welcomed foreign investment, and dropped their tariff barriers. Yet from Argentina to Russia, capitalist reformers are now intellectually on the defensive, increasingly derided as apologists for the miseries and injustices that still plague the poor.

As a result, we are now beginning to realize that you cannot carry out macroeconomic reforms on sand. Capitalism requires the bedrock of the rule of law, beginning with that of property.

[cripplecreek]

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
- Calvin Coolidge.

[Paladin2]

Sounds like Cal wasn’t silent afterall, just that 1/2 of America didn’t want to listen.....

[ClearCase_guy]

Capitalism requires the bedrock of the rule of law, beginning with that of property.

More Americans need to realize where we are going, and how awful that destination is. We don't see property the way we used to in this country. We don't see the rule of law the way we used to. Our government is a tyranny, and the things you paid for, ought to really belong to the people who didn't pay for them. It's only fair, right?

[sauropod]

.

[Sherman Logan]

Most people, even educated conservatives, don’t realize how dependent what we call the free market or capitalism is on a number of historically rather unusual conditions.

The most important of these being rule of law. That’s pretty rare in history. It’s surprising how well China has done in recent years, given that they don’t really have rule of law.

[Jacquerie]

In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

- James Madison, 1792.

[Vineyard]

Two other books also do a GREAT job of explaining things....

First book: The Character of Nations, by Angelo Codevilla. Excellent analysis of why private property AND “Rule of Law” is critical for a nation to grow and prosper.

Second book: The Noblest Triumph; Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, by Tom Bethell.

Read them both ...and you will be smarter. Get your liberal friends to read them, and either their heads will explode or they might become more conservative!

[Chickensoup]

First book: The Character of Nations, by Angelo Codevilla. Excellent analysis of why private property AND “Rule of Law” is critical for a nation to grow and prosper.

Second book: The Noblest Triumph; Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, by Tom Bethell.
_______________

Great books both of them.

[Vineyard]

China has a ‘rule of law’ - as many countries are purported to have. The problem is that many of these countries - there is cronyism, thuggery and a willingness to not really enforce laws.

In one of the 2 books I mentioned earlier, I recall reading about the problems in a South American country (Columbia or Venezuela - the discussion was that some land could be made into ‘coffee plantations’ and would yield a much greater profit for the owner than if cocoa plants were grown for illegal drugs. The problem is that many people who might try to buy the land and put in the time and capital (and sweat and work effort) - have seen similar efforts ‘rewarded’ by confiscation as someone else might find an old obscure document (wait for the ink to dry) ...with establishes a BETTER claim to the property - and the property AND all efforts expended - get legally stolen. Without MEANINGFUL and HONEST rule of law - no one expends much effort, when the government enables to well connected to ‘legally’ steal things.

And the government and people would actually benefit if there was HONEST rule of law in this situation, because honest workers on a coffee plantation would do more for the local economy and would provide better stability than having the land nominally controlled by wealthy drug dealers who support and enable corrupt politicians.

[Sherman Logan]

You are of course absolutely right.

MEANINGFUL and HONEST rule of law is of course the point.