Yes, a country with a tiny population discovering mass quantities of oil does tend to raise their living standards (which are still medicore and below any country in the Western world). I guess the Saudi's have a brilliant ruler as well, just compare their living standards now to where they were 50 years ago. That has nothing to do with his economic policies, which include one of the largest socialist states in the whole world with government health care, houses, education, cars, welfare, and a central bank.
You have cited two sources that have nothing to do with Gadaffi's socialist policies, both from mainstream websites. I have had a list of sources already put fourth in the OP, by Zippyjuan, and the bundle of sources from the wikipedia article. You have posted nothing of substance and made yourself look like a typical socialist in denial of the regimes crimes, just as communist denied the truth about the Soviet Union and China, claiming everything to be exaggerated. Governments are evil, and Gadaffi is a perfect example of it.
I responded to the Zippinator's cited source material, and feel compelled to repeat myself here.
Like every country where resources are in abundance, the US has shown up, installed their puppet, arranged for oppressive loans from the IMF, which proceeds went directly to US companies to build infrastructure to exploit the resources. The Puppet and his little cadre were "ins" and the rest of the population were "outs". The US resource exploiter received 95% and the "ins" received 5% while the population (as Libya was experiencing before Gadaffi) remained illiterate and destitute.
The Hunt's story gives some insight as to why Libya's standard of living suddenly changed under the evil dictator/terrorist/murder/socialist/yadda, yadda, took power:
During the 1970's Bunker Hunt was still the heavy hitter betting on one big business deal after another including oil, real estate (5 million acres throughout the world), cattle, sugar and pizza parlors. His Libyan oil leases in the late 1960's and early 1970's were bringing in $30 million/year in revenues (even at $3/bbl).
At the same time Col. Qaddafi in Libya shut out BP and then nationalized Bunker's wells. The major oil companies soon afterwards caved in. The first to break with the major oil companies was Armand Hammer at Occidental Petroleum when he gave into Qaddafi's demands for a 51% royalty payment. After Hammer the other major oil companies lined up and gave in as well. The results were an empowerment over the major oil companies the middle east countries had never before experienced that emboldened them to form OPEC and embargo oil in 1973.
Bunker grew angry at the State Department's lack of support for his lost Libyan oil field. He had hired John Connally to help negotiate with the Libyan but without any success. He blamed the big oil companies for using him as a sacrificial lamb in Libya and then hanging him out to dry on his own. At the head of the major oil companies were the Hunts arch enemies, the Rockefellers. Bunker felt that the Washington - New York Eastern establishment was being led down the road to socialism by the Rockefellers.
Because Gadaffi didn't play ball (take the impossible-to-repay IMF loans, take the 5% deal, agree to accept only USD for your oil and agree to set aside a % of your end of the take to purchase US Treasuries), he became the bad guy. End of fucking story, all else being completely irrelevant.
This has been the case in so many countries in the last 1/2 century, I'm truly amazed that it isn't obvious to everyone in America why Gadaffi is "really, really bad and must be bombed to death".
Regarding the oppressive nature of the dictator against his people:
Libya has the highest living standard in Africa. The "United Nations Development Program (UNDP) confirms that the country has excellent prospects for achieving United Nations development goals by 2015. NATO's war will have already dashed those hopes. A collapse like the one in Iraq now threatens the country.
For Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Palestine, the "degree of repression" in Libya is not "more pervasive and severe" than in other authoritarian countries. Even according to Amnesty International's country reports of human rights conditions, that of Libya differs little from many other countries; regarding the Arab allies in the NATO war alliance, such as Saudi Arabia, it is even much worse.
My feeling is that the US should stay the fuck out of other countries affairs and the single pertinent thing I know for sure about Libya is that it never was, isn't and never will be a threat to America. I don't care what Gadaffi was like, what his political or ideological views were or what his favorite color was, your accusations notwithstanding.
Bosso
But, is you choose to condemn a post for lack of sources, make sure your own are up to that sort of scrutiny.