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bobbyw24
02-16-2011, 06:30 AM
http://www.creators.com/modules/thumb/thumb.php?img=/columnists/16_header_image.jpg&w=150

Why is it that Egyptians do well in the U.S. but not Egypt? We could make that same observation and pose that same question about Nigerians, Cambodians, Jamaicans and others of the underdeveloped world who migrate to the U.S. Until recently, we could make the same observation about Indians in India, and the Chinese citizens of the People's Republic of China, but not Chinese citizens of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

SNIP

Much of Egypt's economic problems are directly related to government interference and control that have resulted in weak institutions vital to prosperity. Hernando De Soto, president of Peru's Institute for Liberty and Democracy (www.ild.org.pe), laid out much of Egypt's problem in his Wall Street Journal article (Feb. 3, 2011), "Egypt's Economic Apartheid." More than 90 percent of Egyptians hold their property without legal title.

SNIP

Poverty in Egypt, or anywhere else, is not very difficult to explain.

There are three basic causes: People are poor because they cannot produce anything highly valued by others. They can produce things highly valued by others but are hampered or prevented from doing so. Or, they volunteer to be poor.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/walter-williams/self-inflicted-poverty.html

EndDaFed
02-16-2011, 06:45 AM
The free will contingent of libertarianism discredit the cause. It must be from the former religious fanaticism that infected the philosophy.

Sola_Fide
02-16-2011, 06:45 AM
There are three basic causes: People are poor because they cannot produce anything highly valued by others. They can produce things highly valued by others but are hampered or prevented from doing so. Or, they volunteer to be poor.

Or their government can render their currency useless by debasement.

Dreamofunity
02-16-2011, 08:13 AM
Or their government can render their currency useless by debasement.

I think that would fall under: "They can produce things highly valued by others but are hampered or prevented from doing so."

Sola_Fide
02-16-2011, 08:19 AM
I guess you're right, but I still don't hear enough from Chicago school guys about the evils of central banking.