Quote:
Originally posted by James
I think the lesson is that we should take their oil away from them for their own good .. . we can give it back later.
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I don't know if you're joking, but that has a lot of validity. If you look past oil, there is almost no economic interdepence between the Middle East and the rest of the world. This, in large part, is why they are so screwed.
Another, and perhaps better, option is for oil-rich nations to adopt Alaska's model. Alaska takes all of their profits from oil, divides it among Alaskan citizens, and just gives everyone a check once per year. This deprives Alaskan government officials of the opportunity to become corrupt. The money goes straight to the people.
A nation like Jordan, with no real oil wealth, doesn't have the crutch of oil money. They are now becoming part of the rest of the world. Jordan is liberalizing its society. The requirements for the clergy are odd, from an American perspective, but this proactive initiative may be temporarily needed so that Jordan can be a liberal nation (free markets, free exchange of ideas, limited government, etc.)
The irony is that liberalizing this society means embracing a set of ideas (that is hated by so many Arabs) that were developed in Europe and the U.S., but that have a lineage that is traced right back to the Arab world.