Unemployment in Iraq reaches 70%!!

[flamingpie2500]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A66151CB-2105-418B-BFAA-73211A631611.htm


Wonder who the employment agencies are--Halliburton maybe?

Thank you GW

[BlueEyedSon]

1. But they're free!

[swag]

6. So that's what GWB meant by "American-style democracy."

[Art_from_Ark]

8. "Free" must mean

they're not chained to their jobs anymore :freak:

[HEFFA]

2. Ah yes, the Iraqi people are better off now...

I knew that if I just blindly followed my leader and his evil gaggle of goons, that the world would be a better place for it. See, I was right.

[havocmom]

3. OK, refresh my memory. Countries with low unemployment tend to be

peaceful? Countries with very high unemployment tend to be troubled by militant groups engaging in violent acts? So, with unemployment in America climbing and unemployment in Iraq skyrocketing, just how is it bushco* has made the world safer?

:grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke:

[primavera]

4. We can fix that

We'll just start calculating unemployment the way we do here in the US: by limiting it to those persons filing first time jobless claims. Then we eliminate unemployment benefits so that no one can file a claim and presto! Zero unemployment, mission accomplished.

[allemand]

5. What a mess !

I wonder why they are employing all those foreign nationals who later become hostages.

[lovedems]

7. No wonder they are all lining up to be police officers!

That is the only job in town.

That is how they are able to spin "The Iraqi's care about their country! Look how many are risking their lives to sign up for dangerous jobs!" Now it makes sense to me. They are doing it because those are the only jobs available to them!

F*CK! That must suck! My husband was unemployed for a over a year so I know the desperation that one feels when you can't find a job and have kids to feed and a mortgage to pay. Would they stand in those lines if they didn't have to? I doubt it.

[allemand]

9. Paul Krugman explains why

http://www.pkarchive.org/column/050404.html

<...>

Much has been written about the damage done by foreign policy ideologues who ignored the realities of Iraq, imagining that they could use the country to prove the truth of their military and political doctrines. Less has been said about how dreams of making Iraq a showpiece for free trade, supply-side tax policy and privatization — dreams that were equally oblivious to the country's realities — undermined the chances for a successful transition to democracy.

A number of people, including Jay Garner, the first U.S. administrator of Iraq, think that the Bush administration shunned early elections, which might have given legitimacy to a transitional government, so it could impose economic policies that no elected Iraqi government would have approved. Indeed, over the past year the Coalition Provisional Authority has slashed tariffs, flattened taxes and thrown Iraqi industry wide open to foreign investors — reinforcing the sense of many Iraqis that we came as occupiers, not liberators.

<...>

You may ask whether our leaders' drive to privatize reflects a sincere conservative ideology, or a desire to enrich their friends. Probably both. But before Iraq, privatization that rewarded campaign contributors was a politically smart move, even if it was a net loss for the taxpayers. In Iraq, however, reality does matter. And thanks to the ideologues who dictated our policy over the past year, reality looks pretty grim.

Originally published in The New York Times, 5.4.04

http://www.pkarchive.org/column/062904.html

Who Lost Iraq?

<...>

The insurgency took root during the occupation's first few months, when the Coalition Provisional Authority seemed oddly disengaged from the problems of postwar anarchy. But what was Paul Bremer III, the head of the C.P.A., focused on? According to a Washington Post reporter who shared a flight with him last June, "Bremer discussed the need to privatize government-run factories with such fervor that his voice cut through the din of the cargo hold."

Plans for privatization were eventually put on hold. But as he prepared to leave Iraq, Mr. Bremer listed reduced tax rates, reduced tariffs and the liberalization of foreign-investment laws as among his major accomplishments. Insurgents are blowing up pipelines and police stations, geysers of sewage are erupting from the streets, and the electricity is off most of the time — but we've given Iraq the gift of supply-side economics.

<...>

Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor.

Originally published in The New York Times, 6.29.04

There are American soldiers dying right now not for freedom but for ideology, sacrificed on the altar of supply-side economics. I personally would like to see somebody go to jail for that.

[gasperc]

10. wait till it reaches 71%, then there will really be trouble

but employment among foreign born civilians sent in by contract is 100%, people are just too bitchy

:silly:

[mzmolly]

11. We need to hire Iraqi's to rebuild the country. It is criminal that we

don't. F**king BUSH!

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. Iraqis need to hire themselves.

"We" don't need to be hiring anybody.

[mzmolly]

13. We are paying for this venture, are we not?

I agree with you Iraqis need to be in charge, this is no time to parse words.

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. Not for the most part

The reconstruction money has been taken primarily from Iraqi Oil revenues and assets. Some 800 million of the US Reconstruction "fund", much less than was committed was spent. This was big news over the last few weeks.

[mzmolly]

16. Like it or not, we are in charge NOW. That needs to change, we agree on

that.

[leQ]

15. attbi's dns won't resolve english.aljazeera.net.. but it will resolve

algazeera.net

is anybody else having this issue?

on edit: that link (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A66151CB-2105-418B-BFAA-73211A631611.htm)with a 'g' substituted takes me to a search portal.

[Tommy_Douglas]

17. Well they are free...

Free to have no job, free to starve, free to die...

[saigon68]

18. ALMOST AS HIGH AS SOME BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS FOR YOUTH

need a Job?

Get a GUN

[KamaAina]

19. Maybe this is why they haven't, yet, incorporated Iraq as a state

with figures like that, it could go "blue" in a landslide...

:-)

[midnight armadillo]

20. Then why do we import workers?????

The Phillilipines pulled out their troops after a WORKER was killed. Apparently Iraq is a big destination for foreign workers to go make a buck.

Why on earth aren't the Iraqis themselves hired?!?!?

[Ravenseye]

21. It's Hard...

to hold a job, when the companies that hire people are closed because they don't have regular electricity. Some factories, workshops, etc, kept people around for awhile, though didn't pay them unless the power was on, and they were working. After awhile this just didn't work and the companies just couldn't even afford to be in business, so they closed completely.