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Iraq
Still in Streets, Iraqis Say Problem is Poverty
2019-12-06
[AnNahar] Chants demanding complete regime change have echoed across Iraq for weeks, but what first brought demonstrators onto the street was the profound poverty of one of the world's most oil-rich countries.

Iraq is ranked the 12th most corrupt country in the world. A recent government probe found over $450 billion in public funds were lost to embezzlement, fake contracts or salaries for so-called ghost employees since 2003.
And that is what has kept them there, with protesters brushing off the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi as failing to root out the rampant corruption that denies them jobs and public services.

In the southern protest hotspot of Diwaniyah, one of the poorest agricultural areas in the country, Umm Salah has joined rallies every day outside the provincial council.
Posted by:trailing wife

#10  United Way's US poverty report data are here
Posted by: Lex   2019-12-06 12:52  

#9  one in five of its people live in poverty and youth unemployment stands at one quarter

errr... that's actually not all bad, relative to most other countries.

What's the youth unemployment rate in southern Europe? I'd be surprised if it's not above 25%.

What's the poverty rate outside of US boomtowns? In California, the inland / Central Valley and north Coast poverty rate is close to 40%.
Posted by: Lex   2019-12-06 12:49  

#8  I admit I haven't been paying close attention what with all the rest of the world on fire, but I wonder how much of this is protests against government corruption and how much is traditional Iraqi Sunni vs Shia.
And yes, I realize those two categories are not mutually exclusive.
Posted by: SteveS   2019-12-06 12:44  

#7  Corruption is a more specific form of rent-seeking.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-12-06 11:53  

#6  Corruption always impoverishes a nation. The US is on its way to the same problem if the trash isn't taken out soon.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2019-12-06 10:51  

#5  Ahh, ghost employees were a big problem in Boston back in the '70s.

Seemed like half the city workforce had a different under the table full time job.
Posted by: AlanC   2019-12-06 07:08  

#4  U'm not sure they'll ALWAYS be such an unusual concentration of wealth in untaxed title and so little in overtaxed earnings.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-12-06 06:53  

#3  No matter what 'ism' is applied, there will always be one percenters. It's the nature of the man beast. Throw in what BP wrote to add to the compounding.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-12-06 06:18  

#2  poverty is a synonym for lack of civilised behaviour and an inferior culture
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-12-06 05:58  

#1  Can't build skyscrapers from manure?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-12-06 05:51  

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