Iraqi oil revenue should be distributed directly to the people

Miscellaneous General
1

In a recent issue of the Economist, the short editorial on the mentioned that

"[Gulf] governments should consider paying a dividend check on oil revenue to every gulf national who would then be free to work as they please."1

I suggest a very similar scheme for 's oil revenue. Please find the suggestion below.

Putting Iraqi Oil Revenue Directly in the Hands of the Iraqi People Would Avoid Ethnic Division

News reports on Iraq often highlight the tension caused amongst the several factions (Sunni, Shia, Kurdish) of Iraq by the question of who
will control oil-rich lands and as a result oil revenue. Under Saddam’s policy of “Arabization” of Kurdish lands, this issue pitted Arab against
Kurd, especially in the northern city of , with socially fractious implications that continue to today (see the forcible eviction of Arabs
by Kurds from previously “Arabized” cities and towns). When the prize is literally a pot of unending gold, any contest, no matter how bloody,
is rational. The control of oil revenue will continue to be a source of ethnic conflict in as long as the government holds the right to this revenue.

I believe that we can diffuse this serious threat to 's unity by distributing the profits of the oil industry directly to the populace. If Iraqi citizens received a regular disbursement on an “investment” in the Iraqi oil industry, they would immediately have access to capital, with which they could begin building businesses, and thereby be much less likely to join militias fighting (among other things) for their faction’s share in the spoils of oil revenue. I am suggesting privatization (of a special kind) of 's oil revenues. There should be no changes in who is actually pumping the oil. The change should be in who collects the revenue from the oil. This should be the Iraqi people, directly, instead of the Iraqi government.

The huge sums from oil revenues (about $1.3 billion per month in the early months of 2005,)1 with even more stunning potential ($11 - $64 in Annual Export Revenue reasonably within view)3 cannot help but drive a wedge between factions competing for oil revenue. In a government, the various ethnic factions fight over their share. If, on the other hand,
we put this same money in the hands of the people, we will find people starting businesses, paying their bills, sending children to school - i.e. the environment for a healthy democracy.

In this case, as ever, a healthy, functioning economy is the condition for a healthy democracy. Lets build the country from the bottom up (economy → politics), and not just from the top down (politics → economy). Put the money in the hands of the people; get it off the divisive political table.

I write this because I believe in the power of ideas to change the course of history.
I have an idea that needs backing. Congressmen and special interest groups are welcome to take this idea, weigh its merits, and run with it.4

Footnotes:

  1. Certain Ideas of

  2. CRS Report, “Iraq Oil: Reserves, Production and Potential Revenues.” pg 3.

  3. Ibid. pg 6.

  4. If the idea is successful, don’t forget where you got it from.

Thank you,
Stephen Slater

2

I’m actually interested in the anarchist’s idea of how the oil fields should be homesteaded by the various different groups who wish to lay claim to them.

Whoever gets there first? Whoever can produce the capital to exploit the field? Collectivized ownership based on the arbitrary metric of where you were born? The workers take possession? The US takes over so they can compensate us for ‘liberating’ them? The Iraqi central government?

Probably left out a bunch of options.

Also, that Ibid guy sure writes a lot…

3

Should pay a visit to Caracas slums to see how “oil money” is good for the “people”. Sorry, could not resist that.

4

I agree! The profits should be directly distributed to Bush and Cheney and cut out all those annoying middlemen.

5

I don’t like the idea of nationalizing oil fields because the guys that discovered it are in their right to extract it, and it would demotivate people into searching for oil otherwise. But since they were owned by Saddam or associated people, such a system would be fair I think.

6

Iraq should split.

The oil should not be converted into welfare checks, it should be privitzed.

You are advocating Bush’s position of using ill gotten oil money to bribe the factions into selling their political indepence to the national government.

7

Privatize, but how?

Yes, that would be homesteading, I guess.

8

Give the oil fields back to whoever explored and first drilled them. The Iraqis do not own the oil fields simply because they exist within the boundaries of the Iraqi State.

The Iraqi people, through the Iraqi government, have existed as rent seekers, demanding a piece of a pie that they did earn.

These fields are not ownerless.

9

Don’t Profits usually get put towards further capital investment? Why would distributing one firms profit to other firms be at all beneficial to the economy of iraq?

It’s just like subsidizing, putting false demand on goods that aren’t nesessarily that valued. Why don’t we give the profits of the grocery owners to oil companies?