A GOVERNMENT THAT MURDERS ITS OWN ECONOMY
By:  Freedom Fighter

Three reasons stood behind the fall of the Soviet Empire. All negative, all anti-nature and all evil. They were; Dictatorial rule, Corruption, and Centralized economy. Dictatorship is a thief who sucks life force from the people and rules through injustice. It denies the human rights of the citizens. It is an arbitrary and unbalanced, blind and obsessive power void of compassion and lacking any higher human value. It is a Dark Age of a civilization. It rules through fear and suffocates the creative spirit and free initiative of the citizen. A Dictatorship is a natural feeding ground for corruption since they it has no accountability and operates without legal frameworks. Dictatorships breed Corruption, which results in the misallocation of economic resources. Corruption kills equal opportunity, enhances monopolies, and artificially raises production costs. A Centralized economy, which can sometimes exist in democratic nations, like France, is just another form of economic dictatorship. It follows the illusion that the good of the many is known only by the few. Or that the protection of the worker is pushed endlessly even if it bankrupts the employer. It often ends up hurting those whom it intended to protect. It is the anti-thesis of personal initiative. It amasses economic decisions in the hand of the government or oligarchies, inhibits freedom of action, and denies the free forces of the market their natural playing ground, their natural rules of demand and supply. Monopolies are abundant in command economies. In many troubled nations, the Government owns the public utilities, and many of the economic resources of the nation and outlaws any competition. Or the unions may monopolize labor. Some governments subsidize failing industries, impose price controls, and practice protectionism, all under the disguise of "protecting the citizen". Protectionist policies often result in higher prices, lower quality, and shortages fueled by shrinking and un-interested supply, as finally a loss in comparative efficiency in the global economy. The bottom line is a drop in the standard of living of the citizens.
It only takes one of these 3 negatives to drive a national economy into a downward spiral.

Unlike the ex-Soviet Union, the success of the United States economy is based on 3 opposing but positive elements: Democracy, Rule of Law, and Free Enterprise. Democracy empowers the individual by allowing power to flow from the people to the public servants. It places the individual, and not some nationalist idiotic ideology, at the center of a civilization. It protects the citizen's human rights through higher values, and the equal application of laws. It balances the power between the different branches of government. It promotes equal access to education and opportunity. The rule of law serves and protects every individual from discrimination and from arbitrary government intervention. It guarantees equal access to economic opportunity and safeguards private ownership. Free Enterprise unleashes the human spirit to achieve and excel. It enshrines private ownership, reward personal effort, punishes personal failure, and brings out the best in us, and sometimes the worst. But that is where compassionate laws and higher values intervene to reestablish a balance and guarantee the weak equal access to the blessing of liberty and opportunity. Free Enterprise unleashes the natural forces of the Market, the "invisible" economic hand, and the natural laws of supply and demand. All these forces work in symphony, astonishingly well, to efficiently allocate economic resources, and increase the wealth of nations.
It takes all these 3 positives factors, together, none missing, for an economy to thrive.

The following is an excerpt from the Daily Star newspaper (http://www.dailystar.com.) dated Saturday, Sept 4, 1999. It discusses an economic policy of the Syrian-appointed government of Lebanon:

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications on Friday reiterated its warning that it would prosecute Internet companies who offer overseas phone services through the web.
"The ministry warns violators that they must immediately stop aggressing the rights of public institutions," said a statement by Minister Issam Naaman.
In January, the ministry banned Internet service providers from offering voice communication services, known as Voice Over the Internet, which provide subscribers with a cheap means of calling overseas.
The government maintained that it had exclusive rights to provide international and local lines. It argued that Internet service providers not abiding by their contracts cut into the ministry's revenue and depleting public funds.
The ministry warned providers that it would prosecute companies if they failed to comply with the terms and regulations of licenses granted by the ministry, which prohibit Internet companies from offering voice, fax and video conferencing services. It also warned that companies will be forced to pay compensation for any loss of public funds."

From the above excerpts we can clearly surmise the following:
1. The government is bullying private industry away from offering an innovative service that will yield lower cost to the consumers.
2. The government is asserting a monopoly over international and local calls.
3. The government is restricting private industry from technological innovation without offering its own alternative.
4. The government is claiming that private industry initiatives are depleting "public" funds, as if fiscal revenues are more important than private economic revenues, as if "public institutions" have absolute rights over the forces of the private economy. This is a twisted view contrary to the free spirit of the Lebanese.
5. The government action shows clear arrogance, senility, and abuse of power. A total lack of understanding of technology as the driving force behind modern economic engines. It assumes it has more rights than the private enterprise and directly competes with private enterprise.

This is just a small example of cross the board policies of the successive occupation regimes. Rather than cutting spending and lowering the tax burden, the Taef regime raised taxes and built a mafia state which oppressed personal, political, and legitimate business liberties. Rather than letting the Lebanese rebuilt their own cities, the occupation regime confiscated their lands through Solidere and other schemes, and siphoned it to the Rafiq Hariri International Mafia. They suffocated the productive private sectors and institutionalized corruption and monopolies. The nation's production possibility curve shifted far below its real capacity and tilted towards more Consumer than Capital spending. The fiscal deficit share of the GNP skyrocketed. Since 1990, we have witnessed arbitrary economic policies that obliterated whole economic sectors. We have endured the irresponsible fiscal policies of Rafiq Hariri, which piled up 23 billion dollars in national debt. The signing of economic treaties that surrendered whole industries to Syria. The pillage and pollution of our natural resources through uncontrolled quarrying orchestrated by the Minister of Interior "Michel Murr". Outright corruption, construction scandals, pillage of government funds, and selective accountability by pursuing the "little guys" while the pillars of the Hrawi regime and the old cabinet members are still above-the-law thanks to their Syrian protection under the Lahoud-Hoss occupation regime.

Lebanon's current economic stagnation, poverty, and drift, are natural consequences to the Syrian occupation of the country. The people of Lebanon have been denied self-determination and the right to manage their economic lives. It only takes one of the 3 negative components to drive an economy down, but today's occupied Lebanon has all 3 of them and more. It has succumbed to the Syrian Dictatorship of Hafez Assad on October 13, 1990 with the blessing of both Israel and President George Bush, of the United States of America. It initially had a puppet regime ruling through a police state made of collaborators, thugs, thieves, and murderers. Now its has gutless collaborators ruling through the secret services and denying the people their right to self-determination. Lebanon has now a command economy that intervenes and competes with the private sector. It violates the citizens' human rights, freedoms and innovations, by intimidating them away from politics, economic freedom, and achievement. It has a corrupt and arbitrary system of law, bread through the Syrian occupation and oppressive practices, which scares away both national expatriates and international investment.

There is no sense in investing in Lebanon today. The money will only benefit the Syrian dictatorship. I do not feel safe to return to Syrian occupied Lebanon and rebuild it. I am waiting and working for its Liberation first. I believe millions of Lebanese from the Diaspora are feeling the same. There is no sense is nurturing the wishful illusion than Lebanon can come back economically while under the Syrian occupation. A nation that has been murdered at its core cannot rise when under evil. What we see today from Beirut is only a mommy, a living dead, wearing the mask of Lebanon and begging the Four Corners of Earth for a handout that will actually go into the pockets of the Syrian dictatorship.

The Real Spirit of Lebanon is still alive, and boundless. It is in the heart and conscience of every Lebanese. They may kill the body but they cannot touch the Soul. Our Spirit is named Michel Aoun.

There will no economic revival without a Free Lebanon.
Long Live Freedom
Long Live Free Lebanon