Can anyone verify these claims about Gadhafi's Libya?

[Blue3]

• There was  no electricity bills in Libya; electricity is free … for all its citizens.
• There was  no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at 0% interest by law.
• If a Libyan is unable to find employment after graduation, the state would  pay the average salary of the profession as if he or she is employed until employment is found.
• Should Libyans want to take up a farming career, they receive farm land, a house, equipment, seed and livestock to kick start their farms –this was all for free.
• Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.
• A home was considered a human right in Libya. (In Qaddafi’s Green Book it states: “The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others.”)
• All newlyweds in Libya would receive 60,000 Dinar (US$ 50,000 ) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start a family.
• A portion of Libyan oil sales is or was  credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
• A mother who gives birth to a child would  receive US $5,000.
• When a Libyan buys a car, the government would  subsidizes 50% of the price.
• The price of petrol in Libya was  $0.14 per liter.
• For $ 0.15, a Libyan local could  purchase 40 loaves of bread.
• Education and medical treatments was all  free in Libya. Libya can boast one of the finest health care systems in the Arab and African World. All people have access to doctors, hospitals, clinics and medicines, completely free of charge.
• If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need in Libya, the government would fund  them to go abroad for it – not only free but they get US $2,300/month accommodation and car allowance.
• 25% of Libyans have a university degree. Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. Today the figure is 87%.
• Libya had  no external debt and its reserves amount to $150 billion – though much of this is now frozen globally.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-884508

[JA]

It's hard to find other sources that don't reference that article, but I have anecdotal evidence to corroborate some of the claims. A close friend in Sarajevo has known many fellow Bosnians that emigrated from the country to seek work abroad, some went to Libya, largely to work in construction. While they didn't have access to the benefits provided to Libyan citizens, according to her they held the Libyan standard of living in high regarding and were largely envious of the extraordinarily generous social provisions the state provided. She told me (this was a while ago) a lot of what they had, which is also asserted in that article. Even a cursory glance of development statistics prior to the war showed that Libya was one of (if not the) most developed, wealthiest, debt free, and educated countries in Africa and the Arab world.

After all, Gaddafi did contend that his program heavily incorporated Socialism and that it was the formation of a new form of state called 'Third International Theory,' which he detailed in his The Green Book.

[Dr. MB]

No doubt Gaddafi was a strange man but I do give him credit for stability and improving the quality of life in his country.

[Zioneer]

Nice if true. Doesn't change the fact that he was a bloodthirsty tyrant who swore to drown the streets of rebel cities in blood.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

And there's even something for the Ron Paulites. We may have taken him out because he wanted a gold backed currency.

https://news.vice.com/article/libyan-oil-gold-and-qaddafi-the-strange-email-sidney-blumenthal-sent-hillary-clinton-in-2011

[AtorBoltox]

Nice if true. Doesn't change the fact that he was a bloodthirsty tyrant who swore to drown the streets of rebel cities in blood.

[AtorBoltox]

I bet he made the trains run on time as well

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

No doubt Gaddafi was a strange man but I do give him credit for stability and improving the quality of life in his country.

Libya, as a state, is an artificial creation, lumping together three distinct historical entities (Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan). This haven't changed a bit whether we're talking about as-Sennousi monarchy or Gaddafi's regime. Regimes remained based on regions and tribes. When Gaddafi launched his coup, all it took to grab the power was a few junior officers, because there was no fundamental of the Libyan state other than as-Sennousi clan and its allies. After Gaddafi, who merely represented a diffrent regional/tribal allegiance, was overthrew (with much more difficulty, granted), it reversed to a nominal collection of regions/tribes, but this time in utter chaos. Gaddafi did create (quite impressive ones) welfare institutions, but failed to create an actual country.    

[Silent Hunter]

Islam prohibits the charging of interest on loans anyway, so that's no real achievement. Lots of authoritarian states create impressive welfare structures; it's the opium for the people. However, democracies can do it as well without torturing dissidents.