Maybe Capitalism Isn't the Way After All...Hernando De Soto is a Peruvian Economist who lived in the United States most of his life. De Soto's parents made sure that he visit his home country every year. As a child, De Soto recalls being interested in why certain countries like Peru has such an evident class difference unlike the United States. This man's interest as a child didn't die out as he grew older, De Soto Studied economics and formulating a number of controversial theories concerning the reason why nations are poor and how wealth can be increased in those nations. The Peruvian's theories revolve around empowering the poor, giving them the basic rights that they deserve, prope ...view middle of the document...
The value of this capital is simply not used at all, it is either taken away by the government or sits around with no owner to claim. The people themselves are not benefiting by any means of this "dead capital".Hernando De Soto explains yet another problem concerning problems with raising the basic capital in developing areas of the world. De Soto says "The single most important source of funds for new businesses in the United States is a mortgage on the entrepreneur's house" (De Soto, 10). In 3rd world countries where people don't own the lands that they live on this proves to be a problem; they are not able to take loans on their houses or shacks so that they can start their own business. It is possible to say that such process stalls normal healthy development and the distribution of equal opportunities. More ironically an Egyptian billionaire by the name of Ramy Laquaih, borrowed literally billions of pounds with the guarantee of "his name in the market" and fled the country four month ago. The average man/women borrowing 10,000 pounds will mortgage his/her house, car and children as well as going to jail if the money isn't returned to the bank. Where is the fairness in this?The train of thought hardly comes to a stop here, once the property legislation laws are changed then the government has entitled everyone to a fair chance. It appears that reducing or eliminating property legislation is a challenge indeed. De Soto says that it takes 513 days to legally open a bakery here in Egypt, as well as taking up to 79 bureaucratic legal steps to build a building in Egypt. To make use of the available "dead capital" we have to use our resources as well as to make sure that they are available to everyone. If it takes almost two years to legally open a bakery how many individuals are going to go through the actual correct channels to get it done? Governments need to set more realistic expectations if they expect people to respect their own government.De Soto explains that the problem in places like Imbaba that the poor are looked upon as the problem. In a sense they are blamed for what they are, people assume that they chose to become poor at their own free will. I have unfortunately witnessed with my own eyes more than once police in Egypt physically abusing powerless street vendors. The abuse doesn't stop at being physical but at being called names so vulgar and crude that one begins to wonder how they don't explode in the faces of those officers. The government will only wake up when one day the country is facing massive destructive riots like those of September 1978. The riots were over Sadat's lifting government cost support over bread, sugar, oil etc; the result: destructive, bloody riots all over the nation with the riot police torching hotels over the nation (Tawfik,2002). How long can these poor people be pushed until they simply "have it"?Once the poor are not looked upon as a drag on the economy, then we can move to create someth...
