Posted on 06/20/2006 4:04:31 PM PDT by ChessExpert
Ugh. I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way or anything, but I think we need to conquer Mexico.
Nice info, thanks.
Very nice summary.
The answer is greed and Islam.
I know a lot of the automotive component stuff that went down there 10 yrs ago has since moved to China. Wages there are half or third of Mexico, plus a more educated workforce.
Socialism stunts economic growth.
That was too easy, next question please.
That was my thought, too. One of the reasons this very bad SCOTUS decision must be reversed.
One could argue Christian values are not a prerequisite, and point to certain nations in the Asian-Pacific nations that appear to have healthy capitalist economies (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, etc.)
Of course, the counterargument would be that those nations largely borrowed those values from European occupiers.
One analysis I've heard is that NAFTA, by flooding the Mexican market with government subsidized corn from the US, put a whole lot of Mexican farmers out of work. The author of this article seems to be hinting at this when he states:
"A great deal of agricultural labor clearly became uneconomic and millions of peasants moved to Mexico City where they set up shanties and encampments."
Interesting point. It occurs to me that those Asian-Pacific countries you mentioned, while not a Christian ethic, do have a strong ethic of there existing higher "laws" or "callings" that one must subordinate oneself to.
I'm thinking, for example, of the Asian idea of honor and family honor. This concept influences individuals' behavior and their sense of accountability, if not to God, then to their ancestors, et al.
It seems that for a "rule of law" ethic to take hold and function, it has to be against some kind of backdrop where the vast majority of people in the culture feel there is a higher good and higher reckoning that causes them to self-control their behavior.
I'm in agreement with the article that property rights are a building block. I mentioned Locke and Huntington because I don't think property rights are the entire foundation. Before a culture can have meaningful property rights, (more than 2 or 3 rich guys saying 'we own everything,') it has to have a fundamental respect for individuals. When Martin Luther criticized the Catholic Church, part of it was because he wanted each person to be able to read the Bible. This belief that each person is responsible to God, individually, and capable of a relationship with God, individually, lies at the heart of Protestantism. It is what led philosophers like Locke to argue that each man stands before God alone, not a king, and that thus the king derives his authority from men. Locke usurped the monarchy in the same way Luther did the Catholic church, by putting the individual above it all. Naturally, both the monarchy and the church opposed being cut out as middlemen. Our Founding Fathers cited Locke, among others, in drawing up our founding documents, and their ideals were very much a part of the Puritan society the founders largely came from. That, I submit, is a slightly wider foundation than mere property rights alone.
Other new world nations, south of the border, were colonozed by Catholics. Before Vaticans I and II, the Catholic church was a bit different than today. (So any Catholics that read this...I'm not dissing your faith.) Latin cultures developed without stressing individual rights, sans the virulent hatred of central authority that defined the founders of the US. Thus they are culturally predisposed to being preyed on by despots and socialists.
are Christian values a prerequisite to the successful implementation of a private property system?
I honestly don't know. Just because we did it this way doesn't mean there's no other way. I doubt Japan had much sense of individual rights before we rebuilt them, but they sure have done well since. If I would argue anything, it is simply that culture plays a giant role in the success of a country. I would bet there isn't a single successful country, defined as one that boasts high literacy, employment, standard of living, high art, high science, etc --as opposed to making pottery and putting bones in noses--that doesn't honor individual rights and the sanctity of life.
We have something special here.
Agreed. Someone else brought up the fact that the rule of law does prevail in some Asian-Pacific cultures and it got me thinking. In those cultures, the concept of honor and family honor is very influential. It almost replaces the function of godly obedience in our culture.
What I mean is: it is a concept that likewise stresses accountability to something/someone higher and, therefore, the need to self-regulate one's behavior.
It also seems to me it has an inherent statement about the worth of the individual: the individual is valuable as an extension of his ancestors and so on---so valuable that when if he screws up, it shames the entire family or culture.
So in some ways they get to a similar place as American culture gets with the Protestant concept of accountability directly to God. So that may be alternate way in which a "rule of law" mentality can be established in a culture.
It seems that for a "rule of law" ethic to take hold and function, it has to be against some kind of backdrop where the vast majority of people in the culture feel there is a higher good and higher reckoning that causes them to self-control their behavior.
I think in Latin American countries, they have strong faith in God and a strong committment to family. That should be enough of a backdrop to support the rule of law. The cultural problem that gets in the way is that they want the government to do things for them. They don't fear central authority like we used to; instead, they look to the government to solve problems that we would prefer to solve through individual responsibility and industry.
"How a conflict-ridden, grossly over-populated place with no resources whatsoever gets rich is simple. The British colonial government turned Hong Kong into an economic miracle by doing nothing." -- P.J. O'Rourke
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