I don't know much yet about the pre-existing economic system which I find more fascinating since their could be wicked 'strategies' I cud use and no-one else can use because it's not known, this will require accessing ancient trader clan knowledge across the nation and accumulate this knowledge. But let's forget that and discusss modern economic system post colonial.
Somalis experienced a communism economic model(1969-1991) and a private market model(1960-69), so we have a wealth of knowledge to contribute to ourselves using 'facts' not 'passions' from the west-east who haven't experienced each model in their nation to review it's experience. Post 91 untill now '100% private' and minimal or zero public owned economy. We currently would be graded the most free and private market in the world and we see the disaster of it.
So we got 3 extreme systems to review cuz as usual we are not 'moderate' type of people, we adopted the most 'extreme' sides of all systems in different time periods not 'balanced' side at all. The benefit of this though is a 'wealth' of experience which we can review against each other to better inform our future system.
Maybe @Inquisitive_ @anon2 can contribute their knowledge on this topic, as what Im hearing is from one source who experienced all of it. Plus they argue our social decay is linked to one of those time periods which I will detail below.
1960-69 Civilian government and private market
In this era it was private market and low taxes, it encouraged investment and private wealth, in-fact lots of our tycoons came from this era(jirde the isaaq, haji dheere dhulos, haji diriye an an awrtable, uunlaaye mj), their was an under-current of 'poor class' emerging with lots of poverty also. Wages to Property was in-line and people could realistically purchase a property after working.
Public systems such as hospitals/schools were weak due to low tax/funding model. Infact the university capacity was so low it only taught 'law and economics' which is what my father studied economics but never finished it before signing up for Siyad revolutionary led govt to join the diplomatic corp thru the lottery system applied then. This period was very 'nepotism' in terms of government, friends/immediate family only succeeded or rewarded, merit based systems simply didn't exist. It was following the 'besani' culture prevalent in Mogadishu at the time, clan element still wasn't present as many in Somaliland assume but 'friend and immediate family' type of nepotism was rife.
1969-1991 The Kacaan Revolution By Siyad Barre
I am not going to go into the Siyad later years(after his accident) and post ethiopia defeat in 1977. As corruption and clannism presented itself very strongly across the whole system and social decay was rampant. But before that period, Siyad implemented a 'hanti wadaag' system or as the world knows it 'wealth redistribution' economics.
How he did that on the ground was through nationalizing all the economy and not allowing for private ownership of wealth. Infact the nationalizing even reached 'farmers' and 'small shopkeepers' as the wealth had to be shared with the government so he can redistribute it according to it's policy of the day. He would send ministry of business to do the rounds on businesses and split the revenue only allowing them to keep a portion to 'survive' not 'wealth generate', to survive cause he needed them alive so he can collect govt revenues.
He would do the same with Farmers, the ministry of farming would take their 'crops' yield and only give them back a small amount to sell, the ministry of agriculture workers were then sent to redistribute it in the market to suppliers. Everything else that generated wealth was 'complete' owned by the government no 'public/private' or any of that especially infrastructure(telecoms, energy, ports, roads, hospitals, schools, even manufacturing). The only two areas that really fell under wealth distribution sectors was the 'ministry of business and farming' and the govt owned the lion share at all times with the labor given enough to survive so they dont die obviously.
The public infrastructure though was world class like road quality, hospitals, schooling, university, orphanages, energy, etc. The schooling system was reformed from the colonial one which focused highly on non-relevant matters concerning europe not gearted towards locals or their nation, region, etc. This schooling system continued even into 1960-69 civilian government era. When Siyad came all schooling was free and even higher learning were given a payment to survive.
The quality of learning greatly improved from 'economics n law' faculty only to include chemical engineering, civil engineering, agriculture, medicine, etc. Im impressed he put focus on STEM, I would've added mechanical engineering since mechanics knowledge is so important to all sectors.
Technology didn't exist yet at that time. Quality of life was very good but not good for 'greedy' people not satisfied with a status-quo of living. House to Wage was realistic untill later periods when the good times were coming to an end but even then it was only growing relative to wages and homelessness didn't exist and people who couldn't afford a home did 'communal' living like 'sharehousing' of todays world. They would also eat from communal plate across clan lines. That was pretty much the landscape.
Yes this system created two major problems.
1. Corruption and an all-powerful god like govt with all the resources concentrated to the 'kacaan' or the revolution.
2. Hanti wadaag elements to private businesss-farmers was unrealistic becuz these ppl put their wealth n time into their field and to have the govt come along with their ministry workers and split it in the spirit of 'wealth distribution' created low morale becuz people naturally want to grow wealth from their hard work is a fact.
Infact it led to social level corruption where they would hide their yields in farming or business from the govt. It also led to a blackmarket emerging so they can get better deals for their yields by getting rid of the kacaan middle men. I think the social decay we see now is rooted from those days of hiding ur wealth from the govt and finding elaborate schemes. As this was non existent in the private market day of the civilian govt even tho corruption was rife in govt circles.
3. Lots of Somalis left Somalia when they realized they couldn't be wealthy, they targetted countries in the continent and also communist countries like china by going to hong kong and selling in china in the black market. Even Russia was targetted by business people to tap into this model.
Post 1991 Era Till Today
It's observable market conditions are horrendous and informal and totally black market emerged. Poverty is thru the roof with small rich class emerging. Cost of living is absolute unbearable to locals. Wage to property is crazy levels never before seen in any of the systems prior. Quality of our industries are so low even the international community live in shipping containers and bring in their food from outside not trusting local produce. Every other market sector has the same quality yields and reputation. Public sector is totally absent or totally weak. Corruption and social decay has reached levels never seen before in previous system. This is by far the worst era somalis have seen. Infrastructure absent or in horrendous quality situation due to our elaborate scheme mindset 'isdaba marin'
Somalis experienced a communism economic model(1969-1991) and a private market model(1960-69), so we have a wealth of knowledge to contribute to ourselves using 'facts' not 'passions' from the west-east who haven't experienced each model in their nation to review it's experience. Post 91 untill now '100% private' and minimal or zero public owned economy. We currently would be graded the most free and private market in the world and we see the disaster of it.
So we got 3 extreme systems to review cuz as usual we are not 'moderate' type of people, we adopted the most 'extreme' sides of all systems in different time periods not 'balanced' side at all. The benefit of this though is a 'wealth' of experience which we can review against each other to better inform our future system.
Maybe @Inquisitive_ @anon2 can contribute their knowledge on this topic, as what Im hearing is from one source who experienced all of it. Plus they argue our social decay is linked to one of those time periods which I will detail below.
1960-69 Civilian government and private market
In this era it was private market and low taxes, it encouraged investment and private wealth, in-fact lots of our tycoons came from this era(jirde the isaaq, haji dheere dhulos, haji diriye an an awrtable, uunlaaye mj), their was an under-current of 'poor class' emerging with lots of poverty also. Wages to Property was in-line and people could realistically purchase a property after working.
Public systems such as hospitals/schools were weak due to low tax/funding model. Infact the university capacity was so low it only taught 'law and economics' which is what my father studied economics but never finished it before signing up for Siyad revolutionary led govt to join the diplomatic corp thru the lottery system applied then. This period was very 'nepotism' in terms of government, friends/immediate family only succeeded or rewarded, merit based systems simply didn't exist. It was following the 'besani' culture prevalent in Mogadishu at the time, clan element still wasn't present as many in Somaliland assume but 'friend and immediate family' type of nepotism was rife.
1969-1991 The Kacaan Revolution By Siyad Barre
I am not going to go into the Siyad later years(after his accident) and post ethiopia defeat in 1977. As corruption and clannism presented itself very strongly across the whole system and social decay was rampant. But before that period, Siyad implemented a 'hanti wadaag' system or as the world knows it 'wealth redistribution' economics.
How he did that on the ground was through nationalizing all the economy and not allowing for private ownership of wealth. Infact the nationalizing even reached 'farmers' and 'small shopkeepers' as the wealth had to be shared with the government so he can redistribute it according to it's policy of the day. He would send ministry of business to do the rounds on businesses and split the revenue only allowing them to keep a portion to 'survive' not 'wealth generate', to survive cause he needed them alive so he can collect govt revenues.
He would do the same with Farmers, the ministry of farming would take their 'crops' yield and only give them back a small amount to sell, the ministry of agriculture workers were then sent to redistribute it in the market to suppliers. Everything else that generated wealth was 'complete' owned by the government no 'public/private' or any of that especially infrastructure(telecoms, energy, ports, roads, hospitals, schools, even manufacturing). The only two areas that really fell under wealth distribution sectors was the 'ministry of business and farming' and the govt owned the lion share at all times with the labor given enough to survive so they dont die obviously.
The public infrastructure though was world class like road quality, hospitals, schooling, university, orphanages, energy, etc. The schooling system was reformed from the colonial one which focused highly on non-relevant matters concerning europe not gearted towards locals or their nation, region, etc. This schooling system continued even into 1960-69 civilian government era. When Siyad came all schooling was free and even higher learning were given a payment to survive.
The quality of learning greatly improved from 'economics n law' faculty only to include chemical engineering, civil engineering, agriculture, medicine, etc. Im impressed he put focus on STEM, I would've added mechanical engineering since mechanics knowledge is so important to all sectors.
Technology didn't exist yet at that time. Quality of life was very good but not good for 'greedy' people not satisfied with a status-quo of living. House to Wage was realistic untill later periods when the good times were coming to an end but even then it was only growing relative to wages and homelessness didn't exist and people who couldn't afford a home did 'communal' living like 'sharehousing' of todays world. They would also eat from communal plate across clan lines. That was pretty much the landscape.
Yes this system created two major problems.
1. Corruption and an all-powerful god like govt with all the resources concentrated to the 'kacaan' or the revolution.
2. Hanti wadaag elements to private businesss-farmers was unrealistic becuz these ppl put their wealth n time into their field and to have the govt come along with their ministry workers and split it in the spirit of 'wealth distribution' created low morale becuz people naturally want to grow wealth from their hard work is a fact.
Infact it led to social level corruption where they would hide their yields in farming or business from the govt. It also led to a blackmarket emerging so they can get better deals for their yields by getting rid of the kacaan middle men. I think the social decay we see now is rooted from those days of hiding ur wealth from the govt and finding elaborate schemes. As this was non existent in the private market day of the civilian govt even tho corruption was rife in govt circles.
3. Lots of Somalis left Somalia when they realized they couldn't be wealthy, they targetted countries in the continent and also communist countries like china by going to hong kong and selling in china in the black market. Even Russia was targetted by business people to tap into this model.
Post 1991 Era Till Today
It's observable market conditions are horrendous and informal and totally black market emerged. Poverty is thru the roof with small rich class emerging. Cost of living is absolute unbearable to locals. Wage to property is crazy levels never before seen in any of the systems prior. Quality of our industries are so low even the international community live in shipping containers and bring in their food from outside not trusting local produce. Every other market sector has the same quality yields and reputation. Public sector is totally absent or totally weak. Corruption and social decay has reached levels never seen before in previous system. This is by far the worst era somalis have seen. Infrastructure absent or in horrendous quality situation due to our elaborate scheme mindset 'isdaba marin'
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