Get out of the way.

Get out of the way.

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Sunday, May 17, 2020
 112

Get out of the way.
Salem Mashkur
 
Iraq is in economic, as well as political, dilemma, not now but decades ago. It is the disease of the economy that confuses security, health and politics. We sell oil and we hire the unemployed in the hundreds of thousands every year to move to another kind of unemployment, which is disguised, there is no work to do, on the contrary they may hinder work in government departments. The important thing is to take a salary at the end of the month and it is not important to produce. This in itself destroys the personality of man and drives him to more laziness and dependency. 
In a sick economy like Iraq, there are no real job opportunities for people. The government provides the opportunity to get paid through useless appointments, not productive jobs. The government apparatus is bloated and the oil we sell as a single export commodity, we distribute its revenues to millions of employees.
Now, as happened six years ago, oil prices collapsed and we lost our only source of money, and we, the great Mesopotamia and the fertile land full of precious metals, are looking for external loans to secure the salaries of employees.
The economy is the foundation, and from it it is the beginning, and everyone is repeating this but no practical steps yet. Relying on the sale of oil is a sin we are seeing results now. The economy here is free and not held by the state as the former socialist countries, but experience has also shown that the role of the state must remain in supervision, evaluation and control in order to ensure that the free economy does not become a savage mafia that manipulates people's lives, power and health.
A free economy means investment with facilities that enable it to actually verify, guarantees its positive results, and we have many examples of countries that are not natural resources but have prospered economically through investment. We have raised the banner of the free economy and investment since 2003, but our minds and hearts are still living in a guided economy, whose foundations have been eroded by the demise of the central authoritarian regime and the replacement of a system that exercises democracy in a more than guaranteed form. We lost the compass, and investment remained just slogans and conferences, and the reason for corruption and the absence of legislation that provides a real and safe environment for investment, investors have moved away from the foundation or tried their fortunes and fled to the time they believed our claims. 
The solution begins with changing our mentality and negative perception of the private sector, then strict laws and procedures that facilitate the work of this sector and attract investors, prevent blackmail from politicians and gangs, and guarantee the rights of private sector workers. This is how real jobs are created and the burden on the government apparatus is reduced.

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