Re: BOOK: The Mystery of Capital

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sat Oct 20 2001 - 09:50:24 MDT


From: "Brian D Williams" <talon57@well.com>
> That's just my center-of-the-universe perspective, ;) all those
> countrys are "west" of Chicago. (I've always traveled west to get
> there)

Well, they're "west" of California too, so de Soto's use of the word makes us
both easterners I guess.

> The interesting part about his theory is that you can examine a
> capitalist country (almost a thousand collegues are doing just
> that) and make predictions based on the sophistication of this
> necessary infrastructure. That and you can make corrections in
> existing economies, and have an actual testable plan of how to get
> from there to here.
>
> They're economists with dirt under their fingernails.

Soap and water and a brush can clean their fingernails... Correcting existing
economies is another story. Because someone (with powerful connections
probably) is profiting from the existing economies, its not just a matter of
adjusting and building infrastructure, but also of displacing socialist
bureaucrats. Do you feel that de Soto is justified in referring to his subject
as a "mystery"?

--- --- --- --- ---

Useless hypotheses, etc.:
 consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment

We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.



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