What is a job?

I'm not a Latin America expert by any means, but this is the eighth country in the region that I've visited and one thing that's struck me over and over is that despite all of these countries being considerably worse off economically than Canada, I hardly ever see people begging for money on the street. And those that do are almost always old, disabled, or young mothers with children. This is in direct contrast to Toronto, where panhandling is quite common.

One reason that I've always felt is at least partly responsible for this is the existence of the informal economy. Live in Peru and don't have a job? Then you might have a kiosk on the street selling chocolate bars and other snacks. Or a stand selling cheap watches and TV remotes. If you can't afford a kiosk or stand, you might carry candies around on a tray. If you don't have a tray, carry what you can in your hands.



Would this work in Canada? Should it? I'm not suggesting "put the bums to work" a la Mike Harris: I'm just wondering if people who had some kind of job would feel better about themselves than those who just asked for money. I expect that regulation and taxes would bog it down. I don't know how far outside the tax system workers of this sort are here in Peru. People who have kiosks have to pay the city a fee for the space, but I don't know if they pay taxes otherwise.

The Gamarra district in Lima that I wrote about earlier is a step up from the sort of "workplaces" that I referred to above, but it's still an example of how mini-businesses can work. We think of a store as being of a certain size, but why couldn't it be the size of a walk-in closet?

Discuss!