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Well, land does have a lot to do with it, historically. Or rather, the people who controlled the land vs. the people who didn't control the land is the source o
by ubernostrum 10y ago
Well, land does have a lot to do with it, historically. Or rather, the people who controlled the land vs. the people who didn't control the land is the source of a lot of the historical instability in Mexico, which really ought to be a warning to people who argue that inequality and dispossession are perfectly fine and expected consequences of a good system.
- dmix 10y ago> which really ought to be a warning to people who argue that inequality and dispossession are perfectly fine and expected consequences of a good system. A "good system" doesn't just mean rewarding the top contributors with more but also implies the existence a strong and fair legal system where human, business, and property rights are respected and criminal law is enforced. That is almost always a necessary prerequisite for capitalism to function (even Adam Smith wrote about this quite a bit in the 1700s) but capitalism usually gets faulted regardless - even when market economies are pigeonholed on top of a) purposefully neglectful authoritarian states or b) places with under-developed legal systems. There have been plenty of cases in Mexico where rightful owners of land were 'dispossessed' and this didn't happen as a result of a functioning free-market system (which is what I believe you were taking a swipe at). Whether the land rights were fairly distributed or respected post-colonization is also not a cause/effect result of a market economy but a result of the functions of the state/legal system. It certainly won't help either when responsibility is post-defacto shifted onto markets where the powerless poor will have even less authority than in courts or government. Stealing a bunch of stuff then shifting previously centralized authority/responsibility over to markets is a sadly common tactic in underdeveloped regions, not surprising there was such hostility towards capitalism in South/Central America in the past 60 yrs where it was rushed in without addressing underlying systemic issues (see also: Russia and parts of eastern europe in 80/90s).
- ubernostrum 10y agothis didn't happen as a result of a functioning free-market system Sure it did. It's just that you haven't yet figured out that "free-market system" is a label that ranks up there with "creation science" in terms of deceptiveness about what it actually labels.