Iraq? What about the USofA?

It would be the height of irony if some decision-maker takes this seriously for Iraq after ignoring its obvious truth in the USofA for all these decades.

Government Is the Solution
By Arnold Kling 04/09/2003

Once the fighting dies down in Iraq, new sets of challenges will appear. These involve putting together a new government and a new economy. In order for Iraq to be successful as a democracy, its economy will have to be successful, also.

In What Causes Prosperity?, I wrote that economic success requires three ethics: a work ethic; a public service ethic; and a learning ethic. As Ralph Peters has pointed out, these ethics have been missing in many Arab societies, so that cultivating them will require some effort.

Focus on Jobs, Not Oil

Often, when pundits look at the Iraqi economy, the focus is on oil. For example, Morris Adelman wrote an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal about the importance of selling Iraq's oil assets to the highest bidder.

Instead, the issue of privatizing Iraq's oil can wait. Oil should remain government property at least until oil production is stabilized, and perhaps longer - until the economy and an Iraqi government have gotten on their feet.

In the short run, the most important focus of economic policy should be to develop the work ethic. Nothing is more dangerous and destabilizing than large contingents of unemployed men with guns. Iraq is saturated with guns. We need to focus on eliminating the unemployment.

posted by Prometheus 6 at 4/9/2003 02:41:51 PM |