In 2004 the foundation published on its website a complete teaching unit with ready-made lectures for use in high school classrooms, entitled “Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?” (Foundation for Teaching Economics 2004). The lectures were written by academic economists and reviewed for publication by two of the foundation’s advisers, Douglas North and Milton Friedman. After an introductory lecture on concepts and terms, the first substantive lecture is entitled “Property Rights and the Rule of Law.” The lecture begins by proposing that in developing countries the most significant obstacle to improving the lives of the poor is the absence of clear property rights. The rest of the lecture supports this claim by making three arguments: that property rights create incentives to invest, that they create the means of investing by providing collateral for loans, and that they further promote development by freeing people from protective activities so that they can engage in productive activities. As evidence for the first two points, it cites the work of Hernando de Soto, and for the third point the paper on urban property titling in Peru by Field.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1982