Friday, July 11, 2003

FREE MARKET FORCES IN IRAQ.

How 'ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, once they've see gay Paris?

I'm betting that is exactly the result Mr. Bremer is looking for.
Tarik Assad seemed the paragon of prosperity Tuesday as he lugged a new kitchen stove into the trunk of his car in Baghdad's Kerradeh district. The four-burner, Chinese-made model had cost only $90 -- a great bargain, he said.

Under Saddam Hussein, the same model cost about $150, more than a month's salary in Assad's job as an accountant for the national oil ministry. Now, the $90 is less than half his new monthly salary of $200.

"Thank God," he said. "My wife will be happy."

The down side is that the old Stalinist type state manufacturing behemoths can't compete, so folks will lose those jobs in the near term.

But just as free markets trample inefficiencient practices, so too do they bring opportunities.

Read it all here.

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