Ghadaffi did alot for his people.
First of all, he lead the revolution against the old ruler, and since he was an ambitious leader, with the support of everyone, he became the new leader. Kinda like what happened in Venezuela with Chavez, you know, drive tank in palace, people see him as fearless and support him for his position in power.
Secondly, he offered his people two options, that either they make a committee to run the country, and that they would have a majority in the shares and decisions (including oil) and that we would run as diplomatic figurehead only. However, in doing so, the country would have to run on a Western system of taxes and inflation as well banking. In Libya, you could buy for 1 dollar, about a bag of rice or 4 sets of flat bread, or hell, even 4 PS1 games, but this is as long as he stays in power with his black-market schemes. People chose the later, gave up all rights so they don't pay taxes or could get rice for dirt cheap.
He also set up an account for national widows and orphans. If you're widow, you get payed about 600$, and little plus for each child you have. Moreover, if you're a single guy, working, and earn under 200-250$, you get payed an extra 400$ to make it national standard.
There were no taxes, you had rights as an international worker to get a retirement fund that you could draw out later, and people were pretty happy with life.
What else? Oh yes, if you live in an apartment, the apartment becomes yours, and you're exempt from taxation by the landlord, unless they do the service of payment and bill on your behalf, in which case, they could charge a 'working fee'.
Ghadaffi is no angel mind you, he ruled with an iron fist, but considering most the locals didn't work a single day of honest work in their life which wasn't knee-deep in illegal goods, and those that did work, had the work ethic of a Sloth on Sleeping Pills, I would say they had a pretty easy life many people.
I spent a good amount of time there since my father was an engineer for certain companies, and let me tell you something: There was no need for change, I mean hell, Libya wasn't even affected by the Economic Crisis because of the way it was built, no one cared and no one lost money.
You know what is the worst part in all of this? If Ghadaffi wins, the little punks who run around with guns (which riddled my old home with bullets, if I was living there right now, I would be dead, and this wasn't even a war-related conflict, the local mob attacked a police station on assumption that the police was going to turn them in) will not only be executed, but the good people, who have families and had no relation to war will also be streamrolled because frankly speaking, the big guy can't trust anyone.
Both parties are at wrong here, and taking into account that many of the 'outskirt farmers' and immigrant workers are running away, leaving everything behind, I would say the 'rebels' are as much of a cancer as the original leader was.
But whatever, I guess people who didn't even spend a month there, have all the right to make philosophical statements they want, mine would be "The devil you know, is better then the devil you don't know".
