rights and freedoms. In the hands of Telmex and other
Mexican monopolies, however, it has become a formidable
tool for cementing monopoly power. Rather than protecting
people’s rights, the amparo provides a loophole in equality
before the law.
Slim has made his money in the Mexican economy in
large part thanks to his political connections. When he has
ventured into the United States, he has not been
successful. In 1999 his Grupo Curso bought the computer
retailer CompUSA. At the time, CompUSA had given a
franchise to a firm called COC Services to sell its
merchandise in Mexico. Slim immediately violated this
contract with the intention of setting up his own chain of
stores, without any competition from COC. But COC sued
CompUSA in a Dallas court. There are no amparos in
Dallas, so Slim lost, and was fined $454 million. The lawyer
for COC, Mark Werner, noted afterward that “the message
of this verdict is that in this global economy, firms have to
respect the rules of the United States if they want to come
here.” When Slim was subject to the institutions of the
United States, his usual tactics for making money didn’t
work.
T OWARD A T HEORY OF W ORLD I NEQUALITY
We live in an unequal world. The differences among nations
are similar to those between the two parts of Nogales, just
on a larger scale. In rich countries, individuals are healthier,
live longer, and are much better educated. They also have
access to a range of amenities and options in life, from
vacations to career paths, that people in poor countries can
only dream of. People in rich countries also drive on roads
without potholes, and enjoy toilets, electricity, and running
water in their houses. They also typically have governments
that do not arbitrarily arrest or harass them; on the contrary,
the governments provide services, including education,
health care, roads, and law and order. Notable, too, is the
fact that the citizens vote in elections and have some voice
in the political direction their countries take.
The great differences in world inequality are evident to
everyone, even to those in poor countries, though many