Read the first few paragraphs of Madeleine Albright and Hernando De Soto’s new TIME column, and you’ll get the impression that these folks are starting to understand that people benefit from the protection of private property rights.
Then you reach this statement:
[W]hen governments grant people legal means to control their assets, they empower them to invest and plan for the future.
Look back at the headline, “Giving the Poor Their Rights,” and you realize that Albright and De Soto don’t quite get it.
Governments can and should protect property rights, not “give” or “grant” them to people who don’t have them. If the government “gives” rights to the poor, it can always take those rights away.
