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  3. Governments that want their people to prosper in the burgeoning world economy

Governments that want their people to prosper in the burgeoning world economy

游客2025-04-26  19
问题    Governments that want their people to prosper in the burgeoning world economy should guarantee two basic rights: the right to private property and the right to enforceable contracts, says Mancur Olson in his book Power and Prosperity. Olson was an economics professor at the University of Maryland until his death in 1998.
   Some have argued that such rights are merely luxuries that wealthy societies bestow, but Olson turns that argument around and asserts that such rights are essential to creating wealth. "Incomes are low in most of the countries of the world, in short, because the people in those countries do not have secure individual rights," he says.
   Certain simple economic activities, such as food gathering and making handicrafts, rely mostly on individual labor; property is not necessary. But more advanced activities, such as the mass production of goods, require machines and factories and offices. This production is often called capital-intensive, but it is really property-intensive, Olson observes.
   "No one would normally engage in capital-intensive production if he or she did not have rights that kept the valuable capital from being taken by bandits, whether roving or stationary," he argues. "There is no private property without government--individuals may have possessions, the way a dog possesses a bone, but there is private property only if the society protects and defends a private right to that possession against other private parties and against the government as well."
   Would-be entrepreneurs, no matter how small, also need a government and court system that will make sure people honor their contracts. In fact, the banking systems relied on by developed nations are based on just such an enforceable contract system. "We would not deposit our money in banks ... if we could not rely on the bank having to honor its contract with us, and the bank would not be able to make the profits it needs to stay in business if it could not enforce its loan contracts with borrowers," Olson writes.
   Other economists have argued that the poor economies of Third World and communist countries are the result of governments setting both prices find the quantities of goods produced rather than letting a free market determine them. Olson agrees that there is some merit to this point of view, but he argues that government intervention is not enough to explain the poverty of these countries. Rather, the real problem is lack of individual rights that give people incentive to generate wealth. "If a society has clear and secure individual rights, there are strong incentives (刺激，动力) to produce, invest, and engage in mutually advantageous trade., and therefore at least some economic advance," Olson concludes.  [br] Which of the following is true about Olson?
选项 A、He was a fiction writer.
B、He edited the book Power and Prosperity.
C、He taught economics at the University of Maryland.
D、He was against the ownership of private property.
答案 B
解析
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