Even the inhuman ISIS terrorists do it! According to the UK Daily Mail after bombing raids have hit ISIS oil and cash reserves, the terrorists are cutting back on spending, including cutting all wages by half, slashing benefits and rationing electricity. They’ve even asked the population in Raqqa (the city they claim as their capital) to pay their taxes and utility bills in American dollars instead of the Syrian pout and are releasing prisoners for as little as $500.
ISIS has famously used benefits to build up loyalty among their fighters, offering good salaries and bonuses if jihadists get married and have children.
However, the terrorist group has now stopped providing even the smaller perks of fighting for ISIS: free energy drinks and Snickers bars.
Necessities are dwindling in its urban centers, leading to shortages and widespread inflation, according to exiles and those still suffering under its rule.
And its not just the terrorists, they have cut the wages of all civil servants in Raqqa by 50% .
The terrorist group also needs money to replace weapons lost in airstrikes and battles, and pays its fighters first and foremost.
Those two expenses account for two-thirds of its budget, according to an estimate by Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a researcher with the Middle East Forum who sources Islamic State documents.
Along with the loss of oil, the reduction in the price of oil world-wide is hurting their income, along with the fact that the Iraqi government has stopped paying civil servants in their territory controlled by the terrorists.
‘We are seeing our efforts having some effect on their financial flows. And it’s difficult to get a handle on just how much because of the different illicit ways in which they are handling their finances but you’ve seen the efforts that our military has taken to take out cash storage sites, and I think it is our hope and expectation that that will have demonstrable effects.
On what order of magnitude, I think it’s difficult to say,’ said Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser.
In the Iraqi city of Fallujah, fighters who once made $400 a month aren’t being paid at all and their food rations have been cut to two meals a day, according to a resident.
The account of the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of death at the hands of extremists, was supported by that of another family trapped in Fallujah that said inhabitants can only leave the city if they pay $1,000 — a sum well beyond the means of most in the Sunni-majority city that was the first in Iraq to fall to Islamic State in 2014.
IS is also allowing Fallujah residents to pay $500 for the release of a detainee, the family in Fallujah told the AP, saying that they believed the new policy was put in place to help the group raise money — a system akin to bail.
On one hand this is evidence that ISIS is weakening, on the other it kind of makes one wonder. How come these crazy murderous mad men understand that when money is tight it’s time too cut back, but our own representatives in the house and senate don’t realize that if they don’t cut back on spending soon our national debt (almost $19 trillion) will totally destroy our economy.
