Oily Fantasies
13 March 2007
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Antonia Juhasz rightly deplores the American military's role in allocating oil reserves in Iraq ("Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?" March 13). But her opposition to private ownership of these reserves is ill-informed. Assets owned in principle by "the people" are owned in practice by the political elite. As recent developments in Venezuela reveal, nationalized assets are used not to promote economic development but to tighten the elites’ grip on power - including the destruction of the very democratic institutions that Ms. Juhasz fantasizes will be used by the people to control "their" assets.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Antonia Juhasz rightly deplores the American military's role in allocating oil reserves in Iraq ("Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?" March 13). But her opposition to private ownership of these reserves is ill-informed. Assets owned in principle by "the people" are owned in practice by the political elite. As recent developments in Venezuela reveal, nationalized assets are used not to promote economic development but to tighten the elites’ grip on power - including the destruction of the very democratic institutions that Ms. Juhasz fantasizes will be used by the people to control "their" assets.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Wednesday November 7, 2007 at 1:16pm