John Stossel Raises an Obvious Question

John Stossel Raises an Obvious Question

Ok, what’s really up with John Stossel, I mean, really? He can’t be what he seems, a true-blue conservative, a free thinker, an honest reporter and still have people listen to and read what he believes.

Stossel’s latest excursion into controversy, “Why Do the Poor Stay Poor,” will surely be interpreted by the liberal, leftist, mainstream media–all redundancies, I know–as a reactionary, conservative, ignorant rant–all redundancies to the left, I know–while all Stossel is doing is reiterating a question that any thinking individual and the 4 million poor of the world should be asking.

There is a poor cure and it involves the rule of law. If you don’t have a legal stake in where you live, property rights, you are virtually non-existent. It’s as simple as ownership in a country rather than merely inhabiting a country.

Strike the “virtually” in all too many places.

Stossel cites Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru, who points out that, “Four billion people in the world actually build their homes and own their businesses outside the legal system. . . Because of the lack of rule of law (and) the definition of who owns what, and because they don’t have addresses, they can’t get credit (for investment loans). To get an address, somebody’s got to recognize that that’s where you live.”

De Soto went on, “When you make a deal with someone, you can be identified. But until property is defined by law, people can’t . . . specialize and create wealth. The day they get title (is) the day that the businesses in their homes, the sewing machines, the cotton gins, the car repair shop finally gets recognized. They can start expanding. That’s the road to prosperity. But first they need to be recognized by someone in local authority who says, ‘This is yours:’ ” http://tiny.cc/ahrsb . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2976)