A(nother) Modest Proposal
Iraq's per capita GDP is about $1800. Since our invasion, we have expended a bit over $10,000 per capita, and even if we leave tomorrow, our total costs for the adventure will probably approach $20,000 per Iraqi.
The current sectarian struggle in Iraq is less about religion than it is about power and resources. Most of the oil is in Shia or Kurdish areas, and the Sunni's rightly fear getting locked out. Here is my proposed solution. It's intended to be Milton Friedman inspired and is guaranteed to be fair and balanced. Assign all of the proven Iraqi oil reserves to one (or a few) corporations, and then give one share of stock in each corporation to each Iraqi citizen.
A moratorium should be imposed on trading the stock for an interim period, and dividends would be paid starting immediately. Initially, the dividends would be financed by the US and based on the projected return at current market rates if it weren't for the war. Managers would have a couple of years in which to replace this subsidy with real revenue, and their compensation would consist of a small salary plus a share in the real part of profits paid to stockholders.
For a small fraction of the annual cost of our current fiasco we could put money in the hands of individual Iraqis, create the nucleus of a capitalist economy, and give everybody an incentive to stop fighting - except for the foreign jihadists - and all Iraqis would have an incentive to chase them out.
I'm jus sayin...
The current sectarian struggle in Iraq is less about religion than it is about power and resources. Most of the oil is in Shia or Kurdish areas, and the Sunni's rightly fear getting locked out. Here is my proposed solution. It's intended to be Milton Friedman inspired and is guaranteed to be fair and balanced. Assign all of the proven Iraqi oil reserves to one (or a few) corporations, and then give one share of stock in each corporation to each Iraqi citizen.
A moratorium should be imposed on trading the stock for an interim period, and dividends would be paid starting immediately. Initially, the dividends would be financed by the US and based on the projected return at current market rates if it weren't for the war. Managers would have a couple of years in which to replace this subsidy with real revenue, and their compensation would consist of a small salary plus a share in the real part of profits paid to stockholders.
For a small fraction of the annual cost of our current fiasco we could put money in the hands of individual Iraqis, create the nucleus of a capitalist economy, and give everybody an incentive to stop fighting - except for the foreign jihadists - and all Iraqis would have an incentive to chase them out.
I'm jus sayin...
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