In what ways have neoliberal "free market" policies driven people off their land in third world countries?

Answer 1

Quite the opposite, I was involved in a policy to redistribute land to indigenous people while in the Peace Corps. The reason much of this land had been taken away was due to the Conservatives running the United Fruit Co.

Answer 2

By concentrating investment and import/export where it yields the most profit, leaving smaller producers without a market or unable to compete on price and quality, and sometimes unable to access or afford quality resources they need for living and production. A solution to this is to teach skills and encourage entrepreneurship that brings everyone into the market and to invest ethically, but even then, uneven pay structures across markets and professions will create inequality same as anywhere. Additionally some aggressive producers, entrepreneurs and tribes will literally force people off land that yields resources for manufacture or grazing.

Answer 3

Please support your question with additional detail- what free market policies are you talking about? Are you talking about Free Trade agreements? I would not consider the support of CAFTA or the WTO to reside primarily in a neoliberal sect.

Like Goldenrae, I also am a US RPCV, who worked with the same issues she did in the same region (and still am working there). One thing you learn quickly is that there are always multiple causative factors to explain indigenous land loss, reclamation, etc. When you start examining issues as individual cases, you start learning about things like how the US bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in Somalia was directly related to the later social collapse of the nation. Or, how 40 years of civil war destroyed the future for 3 generations of Guatemalan people. It was not the neo-liberals who started that war, nor they who funded it. But guess what? The country now has the highest rate of malnutrition and immigration in the W. Hemisphere. You reap what you sow, but we tend to have short and selective memories.

Free market policies are both hurting and helping developing nations (the correct term for "3rd world"). Abject poverty needs a leg up to stablize- if handled well, with the interests of citizens in mind, microfinance and marketing can bring a region out of poverty. If handled solely with foreign interests in mind, then it can lead to land-grabbing, greed and corruption. Like so many other systems, it is not inherently evil. The players are the ones who can make the difference. Instead of blaming the system, let's start demanding accountability from the stakeholders. We care more about the accountability of the sex lives of our leaders than we do about the effects of their policies.

Answer 4

So you're saying that you'd rather have a world economy dominated by communism rather than Capitalism/Free markets?

Answer 5

Great question, only to be spoiled by liberal commies.

Answer 6

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