Fiscal discipline is no silver bullet
Published:Monday | November 16, 2015 | 11:44 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
In your editorial, 'Don't let go of fiscal discipline' (The Gleaner, November 16, 2015), you discussed the need for the Government to spend responsibly. I like to add another component - the Government must support manufacturing.
If you look at developed countries' economies, you will see that they generally manufacture while developing countries provide raw material and labour. This is what occurred throughout the colonisation of Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean, and it still continues in modern time.
Either Jamaica will produce something the world wants or forever borrow to compensate for its low earning output. Fiscal discipline should be a bridging mechanism, and efforts to grow the Jamaican economy through manufacturing must be undertaken. If that is not done, Jamaica will continue go to the International Monetary Fund and other multilaterals for economic help and sacrifice without solving structural economic dilemmas.
BRIAN E. PLUMMER