No one knows the value of a road until they are broken.

Fifty-four years ago, when I was a young “volunteer” in rural Laos, during the hottest year of the Vietnam War, 1968; the “war that wasn’t going on”, was also peaking in Laos. At that point, the USA still believed we could win the war if we could just develop the economy. That’s why I was there. “Teach them how to grow two crops of rice instead of one,” was my mandate. I soon learned that growing the rice was the easy part. What to do with it after you’d grown it was the real problem. You can only eat so much rice. The US decided to buy it from us to feed the war refugees but, we had to get it to them.

A whole school of developmental philosophy materialized around roads. The simple act of building a road, according to them, was all you had to do to develop the economy. Build the road and some entrepreneur would sell a pig and buy some beer, ice, and peanuts, and start selling beer by the can. Then someone else would open a restaurant, another would bring in supplies like soap, gasoline, bolts, nuts, wire, canned fish, and open a store. Then, someone else would bring in a motorcycle and resell it for a profit then bring in more. So, someone else would open a mechanics shop, and development took off. I think you get the idea? That’s why we’ve spent $250,000 building 25 kilometers of road in Balang, Cambodia. But I digress, back to rice.

Roads are step one. Step two, “Market Access” is more difficult. Rice is consumed all over the world. Milled rice in a vacuum-packed plastic bag can last thirty years. So, what’s the problem? Why is that worth $6.00 per pound on Amazon and only $0.40 per pound in Balang, Cambodia? Answer: Market access. That’s why free trade is so important! Cambodia is supposedly a free economy. The ruling Cambodian People’s Party started out communist. They have become very good capitalists. However, have you read about the, “Pigs” in the book, “Animal Farm”? That’s the problem. ‘The Pigs’, are the ones who cornered the market when it was not free. And they don’t let loose! The government tries to corral them, but even they can’t even bring control to the rice markets. I’m ready for step two.