[QUOTE]Originally posted by ET:
[QB] The Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people just like the USA and all of its assests belongs to its citizens.

It is called democracy.


I disagree ....democracy which America is not (it is a Republic) does not say anything about private ownership. that is capitalism that decrees private ownership of resources! In a democracy everyone votes on everything, everything.! it is very slow and cumbersome. that is why america is a republic where representatives make the votes for us on almost everything excepth electing the representatives. But which iraqis will be chosen for this private ownership of the oil? and if so dont they mean that the iraqi oil will belong to some of the iraqi's? so how will we choose who gets to be the lucky ones who receive the gift of a privatised oil industry and therefore the owner of most of the countries resources. If we give it to the people with the most oil experience- it will be the rich of the former regime. will they redistribute everything and start even in terms of resources or will some receive ownership of land and resources and others not. remember everything was in the hands of one person before the regime change so how can we create the kind of inequality economically that is necessary for a capitalist society to function. i may not be expressing this thought well but what i mean is that if ten people all have one apple. there willbe no trading of apples. but if one has an apple and one has bread and one water ect... they will trade (market ecomomy) with eachother. In a basically single income single product country like this. how do we get private ownership of enough varied goods to begin this. and those goods need to be basically equal in value but inequal in nature so that the guy with the water has about say $100 worth of water and the guy with the bread about $100 in bread and so on . the problem is that there are not enough resources to pass out to everyone let alone on an equal basis. I think it will come down to the choice of setting up intentionally inequal societies (which makes it hard to win the hearts and minds of those that dont fair as well in the redistribution) or setting up socialism. and socialism isnt necessarilly a bad thing. we are 7th in the world for standard of living and every country,with the exception of singapore, that enjoys a higher standard of living than us is a more socialist country. Like we all agree--- it will be vvvvverry intteressssting