I just heard that ISIS fighters earn $4200 a month, and more if they have a wife and children. But now that American bombers have been blowing up their stashes of money, they’re cutting that salary in half.
This made me wonder how many of their fighters are motivated less by ideology and pleasing Allah and more by a wage they likely couldn’t earn in another job. Will the cut in salary and benefits lead hoards of fighters to quit and–if they aren’t executed–go home? Maybe, too, devoted ISIS volunteers living in other countries (like the U.S.) will demand that they be paid and refuse to blow themselves up if they aren’t.
Here’s a thought: will capitalism do what nations and peoples have been unable to do, namely, spell death to ISIS?