The Green Book, Part 2

Part 2:  The Solution to the Economic Problem

The economic problem is simple, Qaddafi says:  "Wage earners are but slaves to the masters who hire them."  The solution to the problem is to "abolish the wage system, emancipate the human being enslaved by it, and revert to the natural laws which defined relationships between workers and employers before the emergence of social classes and the development of various forms of government and man-made laws."

The primary natural law is that everybody who contributes to the production of a good ought to own some of that good.  So, if a good requires three inputs -- raw materials, the means of production, and the producer -- the people responsible for each should own an equal share of the final product.  In this way, we can avoid the problem of a "system of wages that deprives the workers of any right to the products they produce."  The slogan for this theory, still visible on signs in the airport and elsewhere in Libya, is Partners Not Wage Earners.

Qaddafi then makes his other key point:  Human beings can only be free if they are free from need.  It is society's job to provide for people's basic needs, such as housing, income, food, clothes, and vehicles.  And it must provide them in full.  Renting houses or vehicles to another should be forbidden "because this represents controlling the needs of others."  People are entitled to these things, but only to the extent of their true needs.  "No one individual has the right to undertake an economic activity, whereby wealth exceeding his needs can be amassed.  The excess would represent the right of others."  Even those who are especially talented or hardworking cannot take in more than they need.  Finally, unlike cars and houses, land cannot be owned by anyone, but land is to be used like these other things:  Everyone has the right to exploit it, but only to fulfill their needs.

The goal of the socialist society Qaddafi envisions "is to establish a happy society deriving its happiness from being free.  Such a society is realized only through the fulfilment of the individual's spiritual and material needs, and this can be achieved by liberating these needs from the control and manipulation of others."  That liberation takes place when people own what they need.

Then there's this conspicuous sentence:  "In the new socialist society, inequality of wealth between individuals is unacceptable, except for public servants who are assigned a specific share of society's wealth commensurate with their productivity and the services they perform."  Based on the length of the wall surrounding his home and office, it appears that the Colonel has taken full advantage of this loophole.  

Down the road, after this system is implemented, here's what happens.  Society will reach a stage when "money and profit disappear as society becomes fully productive and the level of production reaches the point whereby it meets the material needs of all the members of society.  Profit automatically disappears at this final stage and the need for money as a medium of exchange no longer exists."

Voila, the solution to the economic problem.

Click here for Part 3.  Click here to go back to Part 1.