« Words of Wisdom | Main | DeSoto on the Amazon »
June 12, 2006
WILL "WOOF" FOR OWNERSHIP
by Tina Grazier
During the recent debate over immigration I kept wondering what the reasons behind this great "migration" were. Why did Mexican's and others need to come to America to make money? Why hadn't they taken the idea of ownership home? Why were those little mobile taco stands, so prevalent now on street corners in America, not instead
lining the streets of Mexico? I found one man's answer in an article in The American Spectator titled "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? by Tom Bethel. The article introduced a gentlemen named Hernando de Soto, the founder of the "Institute for Liberty and Democracy" in Lima, Peru. Say's Mr. de Soto:
"The secret of Western economies is that over the last 200 years Europe and North America devised the legal institutions and reforms to incorporate nearly everyone and their property into the official market."
Many of the people in the Third World have working systems of entreprenurial enterprise, but they operate outside the legal marketplace. The communities survive because of local rules they have establised with each other, but because they do not own property, they have no chance to advance, gain in wealth or participate in the greater marketplaces of their own countries
or the world. Quoting Mr. de Soto:
"Political elites in these countries manipulate their legal systems to seize or extract the wealth of those outside the unequal systems of privileges and monopolies."
Without property rights the people in countries south of our borders have little chance of creating ownership societies with opportunities for advancement, even though free elections occur. Hence, the migrations to America where the opportunity exists not only to make money to feed the family, but also to own property and participate in the free market. They come for the liberty; they come for the opportunity to create their own destinies.
The problems of illegal immigration in America require both short term and long term solutions if they are to be truly effective. Promoting freedom and democracy south of our borders is a good long term strategy, but unless we also promote the inclusion of legal structures that support private ownership of property, only socialist states with populations that remain poor will emerge. Yet this isn't the only lesson be learned from this clever economist.
Take warning and heed Mr. de Soto's advice. We in America, whether through good intentions or true believer political preference, have established systems that undermine our own liberties. Government programs such as welfare, housing projects, progressive taxation, social security and medicare find us drifting ever leftward toward a form of government like the socialist third world systems of Castro and Chavez. In those worlds only a few elitists have wealth and power. The entreprenurial spirit that makes Americans the envy of others around the world is built on a foundation of liberty and property rights. If we fail to maintain our legal system of private ownership the promise this spirit offers will be lost. De Soto says of the poor areas around the world,
"If you walk through the countryside...in each field a different dog is going to bark at you. Even dogs know what private property is about."
WOOF!
Posted by Post Scripts at June 12, 2006 02:44 PM
Comments
Mr. de Soto is a master of overstating the obvious. It really boils down to what my 8th grade government teacher told us way back. He said, as long as the US gravy-train of money and services runs and grows, we as a Country are living on borrowed time. Why do people come here to start some kind of life rather than fix their dung heap Country? Another no brainer, like electricity, people tend to follow the path of least resistance when faced with something they would really rather not do.
It really isn't hard to figure out that we can't keep carrying people who either do not want to work or have no right to be here in the first place. Our welfare system is as insidious and life sucking as the worst kind of cancer only with a far less chance of survival.
Now here is something I find funny in a sickening kind of way. The Left is so busy heaping our decades long immigration problem on President Bush, it begs to be asked, why doesn't the Left heap our welfare catastrophe on him as well?
That is also simple, they do not see welfare or generational welfare recipients as a problem, they see them as a self-replicating, locked up voting block in their corner.
Oh, I almost forgot the most basic lesson missed here. You can't with any real chance of success, promote democracy and freedom in Countries populated with people who either don't care or are heading for the land of never ending hand-outs.
Posted by: Toby Stahler at June 12, 2006 07:34 PM
Tina, your message and your delivery are just superb!
Posted by: Jack Lee at June 12, 2006 08:34 PM
Toby, Perhaps my very short and inadequate pitch for Mr. de Soto's ideas has given the wrong impression. I certainly do not, nor do I believe he wants America to create any kind of welfare for the third world. Rather his theories serve to open our eyes to a system we take for granted (the legal system that supports private property rights) so that in our diplomatic dealings we can support emerging countries in establishing for themselves, not just democratic political governments, but also the legal systems that allow the people to own, borrow, sell, etc. He is also talking about the people in countries, like Peru, where democracy has been established but because they lack property rights they are limited even though they have businesses. Do a search on de Soto if you're at all interested. De Soto is conservative and has written, and been reported on, extensively.
I don't think you can call people who risk their lives and endure hardships in search of a better life people who don't care. The articles I read were about people who do care, not the blood suckers we have all grown very tired of. Blood suckers only go where there is blood...I agree with you, shame on us for the hand-out nation that America has become...but that is a seperate issue, and definitly our problem.
Posted by: Tina at June 12, 2006 11:23 PM