I dream of living in ... a World Without Dictators! I'm a Libertarian Paternalist in Slovakia - Freedom with Responsibility - 10% of income into your own Pension; Tax Loans for education, health, housing; now supporting Employment Maximizing Companies!

blog posts on immigration at The Truth Laid Bear

Human Rights Hopes - property rights Foreign Policy

Cato Unbound has a great essay: (on capitalists buying stolen goods)
"You very likely own stolen goods. The gas in your car, the circuits in your cell phone, the diamond in your ring, the chemicals in your lipstick or shaving cream — even the plastic in your computer may be the product of theft. Americans buy huge quantities of goods every day that are literally stolen from some of the world’s poorest people. These thefts are permitted — indeed encouraged — by an archaic rule of international trade that violates the most fundamental rule of capitalism: to protect property rights.

Tracing these stolen goods back to where the thefts occur lands us in some of the most wretched places on earth. What these countries have in common is an abundance of natural resources and plentiful political violence and corruption. All suffer from what Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs call “the resource curse.” Here dictators and insurgents sell off the country’s resources to foreigners, terrifying the people into submission while keeping the wealth for themselves."

And the solution offered is a reasonable punishment, less than neo-con military invasion.
1) sue the capitalist orgs that buy the stuff the dictators sell, and
2) create an import tariff that funds a Clean Hands Trust for the future benefit of the people, making purchasing products from an exploiter more expensive.


Great ideas.  The world needs Human Rights.  And property rights, which especially require enforcement.  The above two steps are a good pair of enforcement steps.

Posted by: TomGrey at 05/25/08 01:19 | link | comments (1)