Little has been heard from Lybia since its president Gadaffi fell off the arms-race wagon a couple of years ago and agreed to stop trying to purchase and expand its military power. Though I'm generally happy when the threat of war goes down, seeing Bush and the US milk it pissed me right off. As if they haven't had a hand in every fucking war since 1950.
The last thing I heard from Lybia was something about a Western rock band playing their for the first time. (Incidently, the first rock band allowed in Iran was Queen!)
Now it seems though, Gadaffi is instituting some new reforms: huge reforms. The likes of which I haven't seen since Communist Stalin or Capitalist Thatcher. Gadaffi is laying off 1/3rd of the Libyan workforce to save money and to make room for a private sector.
I'll be honest. He's doing it in a way I don't mind so much: everyone gets full salary for 3 years or a reasonable loan to start a business. This ensures a standard of living for 3 years and hopefully, a private sector that is small, diverse and nationally-owned by Libyan's.
Of course, anytime this kind of reform takes place the hairs on the back of my neck shoot up. First off, I've never heard of a system where laying off 400,000 people goes well. Even with planned income assistance people are gunna get fucked bad. Guaranteed. Second, the massive stampede to create a strong capitalist class is also gunna be a disaster. My guess will be rampant inflation and unemployment combined with an inability for the state to control the downward spiral of the economy. This will be in addition to the debt they incure from the 3 years of income assistance.
Third and most importantly, I'm wondering how much of this is coming from US puppet mastery. These kind of reforms are textbook "Washington Consensus" crap and always end with huge US companies barging in and raping an economy. I worry that the US is trying to bargain with Tripoli and that Gadaffi won't get what he's bargaining for.
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