Thursday, November 24, 2005

De Soto's solution for Australia

In its recent edition, 'The Economist' published a story from the Down Under about a proposal to give the Aborigins private title on communal lands. This proposal was raised by an indigenous Australian, who is very lucky enough to have a law degree from Sydney University.

This Hernando De Soto's type of proposal, in my opinion, is worth delivering. If we want to help indigenous people, settling them in preservation areas, and give them money in the forms of 'public welfare programsm,' won't work. Well, it indeed had not worked for all these years. So the best way is to integrate them into the market economy. Provide them with private property rights, in this case private land titles, is the first step.

Too bad, somehow this proposal was not too popular, even among the indigenous people.

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