"Capitalism tends to destroy its two sources of wealth: Nature and Human Beings" Karl Marx

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[–]StillLessons 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I know very little about Libya. Can you briefly explain? I'm curious.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

They had a fairly localized, direct democracy. Now their MUSLIM (sharia) laws wouldn't be to our liking, but let's remember it was THEIR laws for THEIR people. I am not, never have been, and never had any ambition to be Lybian.

That being said, their system had the government give newly married couples a US$50,000 equivalent subsidy on their first home purchase, and the rest was lent by the government at 0% interest rate. Free education for all, and the government would even pay for foreign education if the individual's studies weren't available locally. Electricity was free. And of course the Lybian nation had their own central bank, not a Jew-owned one.

And many many other great things: https://hannenabintuherland.com/mideast/saif-al-islam-gaddafi-runs-for-office-in-libya-under-gaddafi-libya-was-africas-richest-welfare-state-hanne-nabintu-herland/

[–]StillLessons 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Interesting. The key question to my mind would be what were the "assets" the central bank was holding, as the backstop for the subsidies the government was offering. Still sounds pretty centralized to me if people's daily lives were so affected by and built around the policies of a faceless central government.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's an oil-rich nation and they had also been stockpiling gold. Also, while there were universal national policies such as the ones I mention, most of the day to day was ruled by laws made locally, not even at the municipal level, but at the neighborhood level.