[ismail]

> Countries like Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea that practiced land reform to wrench land away from idle landlords and distribute it widely, have had this success.

This is an interesting view. how did they avoid being punished for this?

Zimbabwe tried redistributing farms but it turned out horribly for them.

Would be interested In understanding how Zimbabwe attempt was different to these countries.

Here in South Africa land reforms is a politically charged issue. Due to apartheid we have a deeply unequal society, where productive farm land is concentrated in primarily in a few hands. Split along racial lines.

I recall meeting some labourers on a farm here in the western cape. They worked on a farm that had been “claimed” by colonisers who arrived in the 1800’s, and then handed down in families.

Where as this labourer ancestors has been in that area for generations before the colonisers got there.

[imtringued]

>Zimbabwe tried redistributing farms but it turned out horribly for them.

It actually didn't. It tries to buy out land but then noticed that it ran out of money. After that they hired thugs to get white farmers off their farms. They didn't give the new black farmers any method of financing their business which led to failed farms. Finally they gave the land to political allies who don't farm at all.

A simple land value tax would have prevented this nonsense.

[laxmin]

The Land without accompanying appendages: machinery, know-how, processing, storage, transportation, fertilizers and other inputs including seeds AND RELIABLE WATER .... is actually useless.

Zimbabwe redistributed the land without the necessary infrastucture or know-how to till the land and produce output.

Therein was the whole failure.

[csomar]

> Zimbabwe tried redistributing farms but it turned out horribly for them.

The keyword here is "idle". An "idle" landlord is unproductive and unlikely to riot. What happened in Zimbabwe is a power grab. It's usually the leaders taking a nice pie, and sharing the rest with the (in this case black) poor population. This destroys whatever little wealth the country had.

[TMWNN]

>Zimbabwe tried redistributing farms but it turned out horribly for them.

Recent history of Zimbabwe: <http://imgur.com/a/VdQdD>