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Ashes to ashes, a game plan for economic growth
FRANKLIN JOHNSTON
Friday, February 18, 2011
All dead politicians are good. The live ones are a problem. The vulgar, uncritical praise of deceased MPs must not blind us to the corruption, poverty and crime they left us. Inter them quietly and muffle the revisionist eulogies. They said, "Give us the work; don't ask us to leave it, don't question our views, privileges or pay, and speak no ill of us when we die". Truth is, a few were good men; many, unfit for the job, grew fat at the trough; not one made us prosper and now their pals tax us to bury them. We voters are reckless to elect samfie MPs. Which one had executive skills or ran a firm the size of a ministry? MPs may represent districts well, but they can't run a $9b ministry or our $700b nation. Which one was ever a VP at Grace? In 2012 we must elect MPs who have a big business record for our minister corps. Most MPs have no time for constituents but never miss a trip abroad. None leaves the job without a struggle; all are ripped from the trough by illness or defeat and in death they continue to milk our taxes - all honourable gentlemen! So, let all the tears flow, but mourn modestly my friends; no angels died here! Selah!
We need a Prosperity Manifesto for election 2012. The levers of prosperity are education and investment; both work in tandem. The first needs massive spend on basic, primary, life skills and a small strategic spend on degree skills; the latter needs local and foreign direct investment (FDI). Our tourism is an example. It underperforms for two reasons. First, the leaders who gloat at 2 to 3m visitors lack ambition. As a mature destination (60+ years), we should have 6 to 10m visitors. Second, our illiteracy is evidenced in the drugs, sexual taunts, extortion, threats people heap on cruise ship visitors. They like our country, not our riff-raff. Build hotels, but will they come? Education and growth are out of sync. Cabinet ministers use the IMF loan as licence to borrow more and fuel our poverty cycle; debt > IMF loan > feel good > more loans > no growth > more debt. Debt is choking us, yet Cabinet members celebrate every loan. Why? Next time we look at strategies to build prosperity; for now let's look at related issues:
GASSAN AZAN (left), PATRICK HYLTON ... men like them in our 2012 Cabinet can deliver.
GASSAN AZAN (left), PATRICK HYLTON ... men like them in our 2012 Cabinet can deliver.
1/1
(1) Economists have little to do with growth. What? You heard!Politicians are the prime movers, but business delivers the goods. Economists analyse data, proffer models and comment; none builds prosperity - economist is the groom, investor the jockey! A top campus has economists in global sectors - music, IT, tourism, apparel etc. Some sports economists track the billions of dollars in the American Football Conference, the National Football Conference and the Super Bowl in the 50 countries that make up the USA, but not one is a quarterback! Economics needs a big canvas to validate its postulates and does not work well in small states as Jamaica. Economists do not run firms or nations; just as a taxman cannot fathom the risk taker who earns the income he taxes. They don't get it! The Bible has over 2,000 references to money and less than 200 to prayer. Why? Money is the key and we must learn from prosperous people and nations!
(2) On the path to prosperity, miserable climate and harsh laws were assets to Europe. They had to invent, work, store up for winter or die! Winter is when water in the pipe is colder than water in the fridge. Warm climates enure to lethargy and so snowy north is more prosperous than sunny south. We need smarts and guts and production by any means is the key. Economists try to mathematise man's behaviour but we are abberant; it doesn't work here. We need few carrots and lots of stick. Prosperity is built by the few who invest and many who work, fuel demand, and round it goes in wide, inclusive circles!
(3) What is Cabinet's job? To create the milieu for investors, manage taxes, expenses. To do this well they need top executive experience; fix trade treaties, inflation, crime, debt, FX; make it easy for business to get capital and labour at low price, make profits, enjoy and reinvest. We know the Development Bank of Jamaica has $2.5b to lend but nobody borrows. It's all Cabinet's fault. They must adjust the terms until the risk, reward ratio satisfy investors. As with FX, there is no God-given rate. No borrowers? Lower the rate, stupid! If they don't feel safe it won't happen; if wages are higher than worker productivity or they can see no profit it won't happen, and if it's too much hassle to start or do business here, it won't either!
(4) Our illiterates also hinder progress. They need the four Rs, moreso "reasoning". Investors are feeding trees or oppressors; people show aggression, "bad face" and so they need big profits to endure our truculent workers and nasty business climate! Even locals prefer to invest in paper and real estate than employ labour and endure the hassle.
Cabinet must fix this now!
(5) The trust between politician and people is weak as in 49 years we have not prospered.
(6) Size matters. We need a bigger market. Our future is the 30m market of our neighbours but Cabinet suborn our prosperity to Caricom's mini market! Please cast the net nearer!
(7) Minimum wage is a mixed blessing; it protects lazy workers and deprives productive ones of top wages. We need "fair pay" and "performance pay" systems, but the brains left the unions. Which labour economist will write them a "Labour strategy 2012-2062"?
(8) Work is key. Many avoid work and undermine our push to prosperity. Rich nations use taxes to get people to work. They tax things that idlers do - fishing, hunting, fuel wood - by permits. Debt is motivation to work. Trus' the man a bed or BMW and he will work to avoid jail. Work is prosperity! We need gurus to weave the myths and stressors that enure to growth. Work is therapy and Freddy Hickling's research suggests we need lots of it.
Most ministers are business illiterate, and a risk-averse JLP and PNP don't know how to make freedom or independence work for us. After 18 years we see what team Golding and Shaw offer - small men, small ideas, happy with small victories, but we need more! We also know the tripe the old PNP offer. Show us the new visions and minister material! As British train drivers say, "All change!" Men as Patrick Hylton and Gassan Azan in our 2012 Cabinet can deliver, leave promptly and not require our taxes to pay for black suits, formaldehyde, mascara, lip gloss and coffins! Dust to dust, I say! Stay conscious, friend!
USAIN BOLT runs in the 100m final on August 5 and tickets are available from March 15; our 50th is on August 6, so when is election 2012? We need a fixed general election date.
Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.
franklinjohnston@hotmail.com
FRANKLIN JOHNSTON
Friday, February 18, 2011
All dead politicians are good. The live ones are a problem. The vulgar, uncritical praise of deceased MPs must not blind us to the corruption, poverty and crime they left us. Inter them quietly and muffle the revisionist eulogies. They said, "Give us the work; don't ask us to leave it, don't question our views, privileges or pay, and speak no ill of us when we die". Truth is, a few were good men; many, unfit for the job, grew fat at the trough; not one made us prosper and now their pals tax us to bury them. We voters are reckless to elect samfie MPs. Which one had executive skills or ran a firm the size of a ministry? MPs may represent districts well, but they can't run a $9b ministry or our $700b nation. Which one was ever a VP at Grace? In 2012 we must elect MPs who have a big business record for our minister corps. Most MPs have no time for constituents but never miss a trip abroad. None leaves the job without a struggle; all are ripped from the trough by illness or defeat and in death they continue to milk our taxes - all honourable gentlemen! So, let all the tears flow, but mourn modestly my friends; no angels died here! Selah!
We need a Prosperity Manifesto for election 2012. The levers of prosperity are education and investment; both work in tandem. The first needs massive spend on basic, primary, life skills and a small strategic spend on degree skills; the latter needs local and foreign direct investment (FDI). Our tourism is an example. It underperforms for two reasons. First, the leaders who gloat at 2 to 3m visitors lack ambition. As a mature destination (60+ years), we should have 6 to 10m visitors. Second, our illiteracy is evidenced in the drugs, sexual taunts, extortion, threats people heap on cruise ship visitors. They like our country, not our riff-raff. Build hotels, but will they come? Education and growth are out of sync. Cabinet ministers use the IMF loan as licence to borrow more and fuel our poverty cycle; debt > IMF loan > feel good > more loans > no growth > more debt. Debt is choking us, yet Cabinet members celebrate every loan. Why? Next time we look at strategies to build prosperity; for now let's look at related issues:
GASSAN AZAN (left), PATRICK HYLTON ... men like them in our 2012 Cabinet can deliver.
GASSAN AZAN (left), PATRICK HYLTON ... men like them in our 2012 Cabinet can deliver. 1/1 (1) Economists have little to do with growth. What? You heard!Politicians are the prime movers, but business delivers the goods. Economists analyse data, proffer models and comment; none builds prosperity - economist is the groom, investor the jockey! A top campus has economists in global sectors - music, IT, tourism, apparel etc. Some sports economists track the billions of dollars in the American Football Conference, the National Football Conference and the Super Bowl in the 50 countries that make up the USA, but not one is a quarterback! Economics needs a big canvas to validate its postulates and does not work well in small states as Jamaica. Economists do not run firms or nations; just as a taxman cannot fathom the risk taker who earns the income he taxes. They don't get it! The Bible has over 2,000 references to money and less than 200 to prayer. Why? Money is the key and we must learn from prosperous people and nations!
(2) On the path to prosperity, miserable climate and harsh laws were assets to Europe. They had to invent, work, store up for winter or die! Winter is when water in the pipe is colder than water in the fridge. Warm climates enure to lethargy and so snowy north is more prosperous than sunny south. We need smarts and guts and production by any means is the key. Economists try to mathematise man's behaviour but we are abberant; it doesn't work here. We need few carrots and lots of stick. Prosperity is built by the few who invest and many who work, fuel demand, and round it goes in wide, inclusive circles!
(3) What is Cabinet's job? To create the milieu for investors, manage taxes, expenses. To do this well they need top executive experience; fix trade treaties, inflation, crime, debt, FX; make it easy for business to get capital and labour at low price, make profits, enjoy and reinvest. We know the Development Bank of Jamaica has $2.5b to lend but nobody borrows. It's all Cabinet's fault. They must adjust the terms until the risk, reward ratio satisfy investors. As with FX, there is no God-given rate. No borrowers? Lower the rate, stupid! If they don't feel safe it won't happen; if wages are higher than worker productivity or they can see no profit it won't happen, and if it's too much hassle to start or do business here, it won't either!
(4) Our illiterates also hinder progress. They need the four Rs, moreso "reasoning". Investors are feeding trees or oppressors; people show aggression, "bad face" and so they need big profits to endure our truculent workers and nasty business climate! Even locals prefer to invest in paper and real estate than employ labour and endure the hassle.
Cabinet must fix this now!
(5) The trust between politician and people is weak as in 49 years we have not prospered.
(6) Size matters. We need a bigger market. Our future is the 30m market of our neighbours but Cabinet suborn our prosperity to Caricom's mini market! Please cast the net nearer!
(7) Minimum wage is a mixed blessing; it protects lazy workers and deprives productive ones of top wages. We need "fair pay" and "performance pay" systems, but the brains left the unions. Which labour economist will write them a "Labour strategy 2012-2062"?
(8) Work is key. Many avoid work and undermine our push to prosperity. Rich nations use taxes to get people to work. They tax things that idlers do - fishing, hunting, fuel wood - by permits. Debt is motivation to work. Trus' the man a bed or BMW and he will work to avoid jail. Work is prosperity! We need gurus to weave the myths and stressors that enure to growth. Work is therapy and Freddy Hickling's research suggests we need lots of it.
Most ministers are business illiterate, and a risk-averse JLP and PNP don't know how to make freedom or independence work for us. After 18 years we see what team Golding and Shaw offer - small men, small ideas, happy with small victories, but we need more! We also know the tripe the old PNP offer. Show us the new visions and minister material! As British train drivers say, "All change!" Men as Patrick Hylton and Gassan Azan in our 2012 Cabinet can deliver, leave promptly and not require our taxes to pay for black suits, formaldehyde, mascara, lip gloss and coffins! Dust to dust, I say! Stay conscious, friend!
USAIN BOLT runs in the 100m final on August 5 and tickets are available from March 15; our 50th is on August 6, so when is election 2012? We need a fixed general election date.
Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants currently on assignment in the UK.
franklinjohnston@hotmail.com
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