Lacking title to his land patch or milk cow, and bedeviled by local bureaucrats from getting it, the poor man remains a squatter. He can't tap it as collateral to buy another cow or a two-stroke engine or a PalmPilot. He can't grow. His road out of poverty is blocked. In the best sense, De Soto has discovered a powerful small idea.
Property laws unlock wealth.
This can be as true for the Pakistani or Egyptian squatter as it is for an American with his credit cards or home mortgage. The bottom contains huge potential. Two-thirds of the world's people live there. Most entrepreneurs start at the bottom. In the wake of 1974's stock market wipeout, capital for American entrepreneurs dried up.