Tuesday, May 22, 2012

"Welfare State.... a remarkably effective way to run a police state."

So Lybia's rebuilding itself, and there's been some issues, among them, the welfare checks.
Yes, really:

Meanwhile most Libyans want their Kaddafi-era welfare state back, but bigger and better. Kaddafi held power for so long, despite his bizarre behavior and mismanagement, by spending over half the oil income on a shabby, but effective, welfare state. Anyone who misbehaved had their benefits cut off. But Kaddafi would also cut benefits for the extended family of those who opposed him. This was a remarkably effective way to run a police state. With Kaddafi and his secret police gone, people want their welfare state and not a shabby one either. But without control of the entire country, the interim government has no way to deliver the expected goodies.

Emphasis added. It seems all so familiar. Like how pre-revolution Libya had an unemployment rate of 30%.

Yet there are over a million foreign workers in Libya, and a million government employees. The foreigners comprise 20 percent of the population, and nearly half the workforce. There are plenty of jobs for Libyans, but most of the jobs require work most Libyans will not do. As a result, most of the jobs are held by foreigners, often illegal immigrants from Egypt and other African nations to the south. A revolution is unlikely to change this.

That article was published over a year ago. They were right.

This is not an unusual situation in the Arab oil states. In Saudi Arabia, the unemployment rate is 12 percent, but many of those men are unemployed by choice. Arabs tend to have a very high opinion of themselves, and most jobs available to poorly educated young men, do not satisfy. Thus most Saudis, and Libyans, prefer a government job, where the work is easy, the pay is good, the title is flattering, and life is boring. In the non-government sector of the economy, 90 percent of the Saudi jobs are taken by foreigners.

Well, nice to see that special snowflake syndrome isn't limited to the West. Yay for the common bond of countries full of entitled, cretinous, arrogant louts.

But hey at least "The oil industry has made a rapid recovery from the damage inflicted during last year's rebellion."

I'm not one to say "Lets go into Syria" but it is telling that Nato and the Euros aren't as keen on that war, but were right gung ho about Libya. Meanwhile US Anti-War protesters don't care, but once they shrugged at Gitmo still being open their principals were made abundantly clear.

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