> btw, there is a book out by an economist (featured in the PBS program on
> globalization #3, I think) who suggests that one of the problems of the
less
> developed countries is the blurred ownerhip of so much of the land. by
> clearing up who owns what and by awarding deeds, etc., the money pump can
be
> primed. who knows? maybe he is right.
>
>
> arthur
It was a terrible problem in Russia a few years ago and probably still is.
Before the collapse of Communism that state owned all of the land and much
of it was collectivized. Small localized committees of the Party decided
who could use what was not needed for state purposes. After Communism,
there was chaos and a lot of thugery. I visited a small holding outside of
Moscow which had only recently been large enough to support a dairy herd.
The farmers thought they had title, but various local entrepreneurs (thugs)
had moved in to take parts of the farm for housing development for the new
rich, moving the dairy herd into a few small pens. The farmer protested and
was found hanging in his barn. His son protested and was found floating in
the Moscow River. Only the mother and a teenage daughter and a whole bunch
of penned in cows were left.
Ed Weick
