Life Without Property Rights: Egypt

Regularly in friendly arguments, I am accused of being too "hung up" on property rights. So, I thought that this article from the Herald Sun would help to illustrate what happens in the sorts of societies that do not value property rights.

Egypt starts pig slaughter, some farmers resist

EGYPT started seizing and slaughtering pig herds today as a precaution against swine flu despite resistance by farmers and criticism from the United Nations, officials and farmers said.

"They have destroyed us. The pigs were our livelihood," said 21-year-old Hanan Ahmed, whose family runs a small farm with around 25 pigs in Cairo.

"They took them. They kidnapped them. And they beat them and us. They said they will take them to the slaughterhouse and kill them there," she added, saying she had received no compensation.

The H1N1 swine flu virus is spread by people, not pigs. But culling swine, largely viewed as unclean in Muslim Egypt, could help quell any public panic. Pigs are mainly raised by the country's Christian minority.

There is no swine flu epidemic. The swine flue has killed only "176 people in Mexico and one in the United States." Alternatively, influenza kills about 36,000 Americans PER YEAR. The swine flu is no more dangerous than the flu you and I are familiar with. The reason that so many people died of the swine flu in Mexico is the same as the reason so many people in Mexico die of the regular flu; there is an abundance of malnutrition and a lack of medicine. Should we improve sanitation, especially in places like airports? Sure! But I think we needed to do that anyway. There's no reason to panic.

As we would expect, the news media is creating a panic in order to increase ratings and revenues. I do not blame them, however. The success of their strategy depends on the gullibility of their target audience.