Free market groups putting property principles into action

When I told a friend some years ago that I was going to be working in a think tank, he replied, “Huh. I always wondered who cleaned those out.”

Not a surprising reaction. Think tanks are often perceived as being removed from everyday realities. Yet sometimes think tanks can change people’s lives in significant ways.

At the Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum in New York, three think tanks from developing countries showed just how important their work is — not only developing ideas, but putting them in practice as well. All three organizations are working on the issue of property rights and land titling (which I wrote about in my previous column, “World’s Poor: We Want Capitalism). They are helping tenants become property owners, bringing wealth to some of the world’s poorest people as a result.