Posted on 03/19/2006 4:48:55 PM PST by Lorianne
Give the man a cigar...
We're the source of his plunder and we are most definetely not helping the people of Cameroon.
L
China is interesting because it guarantees the property rights of a select class while using the majority of the population as slaves.
s'ok.
figured you and others here might find some of the comments on that thread useful here.
seems appropriate, somehow:
"USCENTCOM commanders announced today that they intend to maintain their presence in Qatar "until the sun runs out of hydrogen," thus committing the US to the longest duration deployment in human history. When asked how they planned to maintain the presence in Qatar for a projected length of 4 to 5 billion years, planners said "we're working on a plan for that. We don't have one yet, but not having a plan or an intelligent reason to do something has never been much of an impediment for us in the past; we don't foresee it being a big show stopper for us in the future either."
Among the options that were being discussed was an innovative program to "interbreed" the deployed personnel. "We are going to actively encourage the military members in Qatar to intermarry and raise children that will replace them in the future. Sure, it may be a little hard on some of our female service members, since there currently are about 8 men for every woman over there, but we expect that to be OBE as the sex ratios will even out in a generation or two. In any case the key to the plan is to make these assignments not only permanent, but inheritable and hereditary. For example, if you currently work the JOC weather desk, so will your children, and their children, and their children, ad infinitum. We like to think of it as job security." CPT (CJTF-180)
http://www.strategypage.com/humor/articles/military_jokes_200472922.asp
The other dimension is the modern corporation. China has instituted limited property rights. Don't know any details. Is it for corporations?
The right to property is an essential ingredient to a nation's economic success. It is not the only one. Property rights alone cannot explain it. Without a competition of ideas, the right of property can neither commence nor endure. Property rights cut one way, freedom of thought and its expression another. The Bill of Rights was not built solely upon the 5th amendment.
See David Landes' "Wealth and Poverty of Nations" for a study of the "cause" of wealth. As for me, I might label it, "all economics are politics" ...
Btw, for a lovely defense of the right of property, see this from President Wm. Howard Taft, at a time when that right was under severe distress:
It has been said, and it is a common platform expression, that it is well to prefer the man above the dollar, as if the preservation of property rights has some other purpose than the assistance to and the uplifting of human rights. Private property was not established in order to gratify love of some material wealth or capital. It was established as an instrumentality in the progress of civilization and the uplifting of man, and it is equality of opportunity that private property promotes by assuring to man the result of his own labor, thrift, and self-restraint.
When, therefore, the demagogue mounts the platform and announces that he prefers the man above the dollar, he ought to be interrogated as to what he means thereby -- whether he is in favor of abolishing the right of the institution of private property and of taking away from the poor man the opportunity to become wealthy by the use of the abilities that God has given him, the cultivation of the virtues with which practice of self-restraint and the exercise of moral courage will fortify him.
It's not just property rights. It is property rights plus recorded property deeds. It's the recording that makes the difference. Every third world shanty town has property rights, but only the neighborhood knows who has what in 60% to 80% of it and they can't use it to go to the next level, to capitalism. They have a lot of wealth, a surprising amount of wealth, but it is dead wealth, can't be used to raise capital. It looks on the surface like poverty even when it isn't.
Well, we'll find out more as time goes on. Their commercial structure is quite a bit different from the modern American corporation.
You are the classic example of the real need for an "ignore filter" on FR...
Have a nice day, kicking pets and wondering why you don't have a life.
Add a heaping helping of morality and your recipe is complete.
have a nice time-out, Publius
I read Hernando De Soto's book, The Mystery of Capital, a few years ago.
The Mystery of Capital made me realize that aid to very poor countries is futile. Almost all third world countries sit on trillions of dollars of natural resources and property. Because the concept of property rights is non-existant in these countries, there is no incentive to invest, work hard, improve the land, etc.
I highly recommend this book, it should be required reading for all economists.
The Mystery of Capital
And Detroit, sitting in the land of plenty, has zip. Just like an African Kleptocracy -- cause and effect rule...
Consider the costs and benefits of joining in on a voluntary road repair project. Imagine yourself as an average Cameroonian. Someone comes along and asks you to join with others in repairing the road in your town. If you join in, and the road is repaired, you are rewarded with easier travel. In an indirect way, you will also derive some benefit from the increased commerce in your town that results from the improved road.
But what are the costs? Well, for a day or two you'll lose the wages at your job, or perhaps the food you might find from scavenging or gardening, while you work on the road. For a poor Cameroonian, that might be a dangerous proposition. Even if you can get by without a few days wages, the benefits derived from the repaired road might not make up for it. If you get paid $4 dollars a day, but could only expect to receive an overall benefit of $2 in the decreased travel time and increased opportunity from the road, it wouldn't make much sense for you to join in on the project.
Also worth considering is that if enough people join in on the effort, but you don't, you still get to benefit from the road without contributing anything. Or in the reverse situation, if you're the only one out there filling in potholes, the road still won't be repaired and you've lost a few days wages. That's going to make you- and everyone else- less likely to join.
Those are just the economic disincentives. You also have to consider the political angle. Suppose a group did form and was making progress on repairing the road. A wealthy local contractor with political connections was expecting to get his hands on some tax dollars by "repairing" the road in a year or so, when the government finally got around to addressing the problem. He sees your group out there about to take care of the problem on your own. I suspect he might have a conversation with the police about getting rid of all you pesky people with shovels and picks, out there blocking the traffic on the road.
Of course, you can't always reduce costs and benefits to something like wages. Otherwise, we wouldn't see a lot of the volunteer work that is done in our own country. Sometimes people find benefit in helping others, or in getting things done, and that benefit outweighs material considerations. I think people are a lot more likely to favor non-material benefits when the threat of starvation isn't a real and constant threat, however.
Property rights in space forbidden?
BUMP!
What about a nation's mean IQ?
Take the IQ values below with a grain of salt, but there is heavy correlation of IQ scores to GDP per capita with the exception of China.
100 = British mean
Hong Kong (PRC) 107
South Korea 106
Japan 105
Taiwan (ROC) 104
Singapore 103
Austria 102
Germany 102
Italy 102
Netherlands 102
Sweden 101
Switzerland 101
Belgium 100
China (PRC) 100, Shanghai (PRC) 109
New Zealand 100
United Kingdom 100
Hungary 99
Poland 99
Australia 98
Denmark 98
France 98
Norway 98
United States 98
Canada 97
Czech Republic 97
Finland 97
Spain 97
Argentina 96
Russia 96
Slovakia 96
Uruguay 96
Portugal 95
Slovenia 95
Israel 94
Romania 94
Bulgaria 93
Ireland 93
Greece 92
Malaysia 92
Thailand 91
Croatia 90
Peru 90
Turkey 90
Indonesia 89
Suriname 89
Colombia 89
Brazil 87
Iraq 87
Mexico 87
Samoa 87
Tonga 87
Lebanon 86
Philippines 86
Cuba 85
Morocco 85
Fiji 84
Iran 84
Marshall Islands 84
Puerto Rico (US) 84
Egypt 83
India 81
Ecuador 80
Guatemala 79
Barbados 78
Nepal 78
Qatar 78
Zambia 77
Congo-Brazzaville 73
Uganda 73
Jamaica 72
Kenya 72
South Africa 72
Sudan 72
Tanzania 72
Ghana 71
Nigeria 67
Guinea 66
Zimbabwe 66
Congo-Kinshasa 65
Sierra Leone 64
Ethiopia 63
Equatorial Guinea 59
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