Homework Question on The Mystery of Capitalism
- Please use the book The Mystery of Capitalism: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West, and Fails Everywhere Else by Hernando De Soto NOT internet sources and summaries. This book review is a more of an opinion based summary and is backed up by using quotes from the book. Outline of the paper :
- How much does the book agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong? Use quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think or disagrees with what you think about the world, history, and about right and wrong.
- How were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did the text communicate with you? Why or why not? Give examples of how your views might have changed or been strengthened (or perhaps, of why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Please do not write “I agree with everything the author wrote,” since everybody disagrees about something, even if it is a tiny point. Use quotes to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold.
- How well does the book address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world
- How does it relate to things that are important to your family, community, background, or faith tradition? If not, who does or did the text serve?Did it pass the “Who cares?” test? Use quotes to illustrate.
- Reading “critically” does not mean the same thing as “criticizing,” in everyday language (complaining, griping, fault-finding, and nit-picking). Your “critique” can and should be positive, as well as pointing out any possible problems, disagreements and shortcomings.
Homework Answer on The Mystery of Capitalism
Hernando De Soto’s book on the mystery of capitalism isrelatively controversial and is recognized by subscribers to both sides of the political spectrum. De Soto aims to transform dead capital to live capital through the institutionalization of formal property rights. He argues that for countries wishing to liberalize and open their countries to foreign investment, they will need to integrate extralegal agreements into a formal property rights system.
His idea has been cited by many as one of the best ideas in eradicating poverty, a sentiment that while for the most part being true is not without its implementation flaws .De Soto articulates five mysteries of capital. Missing information is one of these mysteries. Misinformation leads to stereotyping and the lack of ability by many to use their possessions to produce additional value. For most third world countries, he observes that contrary to popular western imagination, a four-fifths majority is not desperately impoverished.
While it is true that misinformation leads to stereotyping, De Soto fails to delve into how this lack of information ties down the poor in third world countries. He states that while people in the third world countries save, the majority of the savings are dead capital. De Soto fails to realize that people in other nations are as educated on financial matters as those in the west. Misinformation is thus not as central to the failure of capitalism asis the lack of means and institutions to implement those mechanisms.