Keiran King merely brushed the surface
Published:Friday | March 7, 2014 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Your commentator Keiran King gave a number of reasons why Jamaica is poor, but I don't think he really touched on the root cause. Yes, he made the important point that a lot of it is because no strong institutions were set up under colonialism - a system that was all about exploitation and taking what the British could get from Jamaica and putting nothing into it in return.
Slavery and the subjugation of the 'freed' slaves to create a cheap labour force were all part of this. Of course, other problems came up along the way, but this is a major point. For example, the economic excesses of Michael Manley in the 1970s caused some serious problems, but they were merely an attempt to correct the long-standing issues derived from colonial exploitation and the wealth of Jamaica being invested in England instead of being used to develop Jamaica.
Still, in my opinion, the writer did not go deep enough to the heart of the issue. The way I see it, Jamaica is poor because policymakers make decisions that are not based on a strong empirical analysis of the costs, benefits and consequences.
Mistakes are built on mistakes and decisions are driven by a fear of the short-term consequences rather than an embracing of the long-term benefits.
Colonialism is an example, but several more recent instances of this abound. For example, increasing taxes or cutting the public sector to balance the Budget will make you wildly unpopular and you'll lose the next election. As such, these are not done. Ten years later, the imports fuelled by the Budget deficit have put the dollar at J$200:US$1 and the blame is put on speculators.
DUDLEY PETER BARRETT