Nov 15 2007
Made in Iraq
I had a random thought a couple of weeks back - how can people support the Iraqi people so they spend less time killing our soldiers and more time working and supporting their families? One idea that I came up with is that we could buy Iraqi goods - it certainly would support our goals in the region a lot better than buying Chinese goods. Thanks to Google, I found out that I’m not the only one with this idea:
BAGHDAD — U.S. shoppers will soon see “Made in Iraq” on clothing sold in American stores.
Shelmar, a 51-store retail chain based in Memphis, became the first American retailer to place an order with an Iraqi factory last month. About 2,000 tracksuits and boys shirts are expected to be on store shelves by early October, says Mike Longo, president and partner in the privately held company. Shelmar also does business as M Town and has stores in seven Southern states.
“We’ve got to get (Iraqi workers) back to work,” says Longo, who is a West Point graduate and former Army captain who taught at the Army’s military college in 1991 and 1992. “Otherwise, my buddies are going to keep getting … blown up.”
The only problem I have with this program is that, unfortunately, it focuses on state-owned factories. It’s understandable why this would be the case, though; the article gives the impression that, before we showed up, Iraq’s economy was very centralized, with the state owning most of the means of production. In conjunction with the war, I doubt there’s enough private capital in the region to support large-scale private operations. To do something about this, here are two things I’d like to see occur (but probably never will):
1. Get contracts going to the state-owned factories. They’re already there - may as well use them. It would seem we’re already on the right track on this anyways.
2. As part of the reconstruction effort, find a way to get capital in private hands so private entrepreneurship can take root.
3. Once private citizens in Iraq have some capital of their own, begin privatizing the state-owned industries, releasing shares to the workers and allowing private Iraqi citizens to buy into the industries. This would give the Iraqi government some much needed capital and reduce the amount of state interference in the economy.
Whether any of this will happen, though… well, we’ll see. Either way, I’m happy to see that Iraq is producing enough to export, and that American citizens will get a chance to help support the Iraqi people.
