The resource curse is one path to undermining the society's respect for private property. Revolution is another path. Before a society gets to revolution it resorts to corruption and petty theft.
In either case the property rights of society require legitimacy. An essential feature of legitimacy is a just income distribution, and a just income distribution entails common sacrifice before the society can afford efficient allocations as defined by the workings of the price mechanism. Hence too much abundance and too much scarcity both result in injuries to the respect people in a society will have for private property.
No comments:
Post a Comment