Missing Ingredient for Iraq
by Jack Gardner
As the United States tries to create a democratic, freedom respecting, economically self-sustaining, militarily protected, peaceful Iraq, one ingredient essential for all of this is never considered: free market policies.
The oil and gas industry is seen as Iraq's primary source of wealth; so, the only proposal from within and without Iraq is to set up the government to administer it. The only vision offered for Iraq, suffering from collectivist thinking and welfare dependency, is centralized government agencies to administer the oil wealth, provide food and medical care, and ensure everyone gets to vote as ethnic groups are pitted against one another in political battles for their share. A recipe for corruption, favoritism, and failure.
It is said that the oil belongs to all of the people of Iraq. This is nonsense. The Iraqi people did not create the oil, nor do they own the land as a collective. When everyone owns something, in practice no one owns it and the result is social antagonism. Government bureaucrats are notoriously poor and unjust administrators.
As Western Culture and history have shown, the only way for citizens to prosper and avoid ethnic collectivism is for government to be excluded from managing communication outlets, food production, education, and business activities in general. Freedom requires free trade, not regulation.
Oil fields, pipelines, refineries, docks, and ships should be divided up and auctioned off to the highest bidders. It is immaterial whether the bidders are citizens of Iraq. The more foreign money, ideas, and personnel brought into Iraq the better. (Or require foreigners to bid 10% more, or auction the infrastructure off to citizens and let them resell.) The method and fairness of the changeover are not as important as speed. The situation is not fair now.
The new owners would be responsible for putting people to work, planning and overseeing construction, hiring security guards, obtaining supplies, selling off subunits, and making money for investors.
Similar auctions could give foreign and domestic doctors, educators, office building managers, power company engineers, and entrepreneurs the opportunity and freedom to get private hospitals, schools, idle buildings, construction contractors, and trucking firms back in business.
The goal is not to make a supposed entity called Iraq economically viable, but to give individuals and private businesses the opportunity to make themselves economically viable. Free minds require free markets.
If private businesses and free markets mean less money for government officials to administer, so much the better. It is not government's job to provide for people, but only to protect them from violence. A free market means that government has less to do. It should operate only with the funds taxpayers are willing to approve.
What any free nation must have is freedom from government, based on an appreciation of individual rights, property rights, self-responsibility, economic freedom -- in short, capitalism. Has America forgotten this?
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