A simple blog about our round-the-world trip. We will update when we can. Since our readership is international, we will write mostly in English. However, from time to time, we will write in Molière's language and Mickiewicz'. Feel free to comment and ask us questions about our destinations and "coups de coeur". Don't worry, we will also tell you if we ever find ourselves in... a putrid dwelling (for our colleagues at work); a s*** hole (for our close friends). :)
Bonne aventure!
In some countries government regulations can create serious hurdles to businesses. The fact that sometimes these new regulations have been proven to produce little or no benefit at all should not surprise the reader. What is surprising is that governments can sometimes sanction regulations that produce unintended – an in this case ugly – consequences.
Let me use the housing sector in Peru as an example.
We’ve always known that Peru is richer than Bolivia. Since most towns in Bolivia suffer from a chronic lack of funds (read: are ugly), we expected Peru to have cleaner and more beautiful towns. It actually was the contrary.
We arrived in Peru from Copacabana in Bolivia. As soon as we crossed into Peru there was a familiar if repetitive sight all across the country side: half finished houses with poles dangling left, right, front and centre. Bricks are laid randomly on top of houses and construction material is displayed near the property. These houses look unfinished but they are not: people are actually living in these residences.
Welcome to the Unfinished Houses of Peru. The culprit? An idiotic government tax levied only when the construction of the new house is finished. Of course most Peruvians build the house and pay careful attention to leave poles, red bricks, cement lying around to make sure that bureaucrats see that… work is in progress.
The result? Ugly towns with half finished houses.
This should be mentioned in every classroom that discusses bad government regulations.
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