First published in The Tribune, May 20, 2009 and published here with the permission of the author.

by Richard Perry Pinder

Dear Editor:

Please allow me a brief space in your column to voice a slightly leftist view on the topic of government involvement in economic recovery, and as a response to Mr. Lowe’s ever growing extreme right wing views on this topic.

I will start by stating that I have had the privilege to have lived in two countries which embrace more left or socialist views, those being France during the mid eighties, and Canada for the entire decade of the 1990s. My observations and experiences have been this:

In France, possibly one of the wealthiest countries on the planet with a standard of living most of us would kill for, there is an infrastructure there that surpasses any that I have seen elsewhere in the world, with a public transportation system to boot and a national health care system that takes care of its citizens in times of need.

Likewise in Canada, again an extremely wealthy country with  a relatively low national debt and which — with the exception of this year alone — has had surpluses for over 20 years in its annual budgets. There I experienced a very developed country with superior infrastructure, health care benefits and a standard of living for the majority of its citizens that many elsewhere on the planet envy.

My observation was that in both of these countries there is heavy government involvement. But the government involvement in these cases is not so much financed by debt, but rather through sensible and equitable tax systems. One only has to look in particular at  the debt of Canada to  clearly see that as a result of sound budget management and accountability  it is a country that has been able to finance its social programs and infrastructural development through a sensible and equitable tax system and NOT EXORBITANT DEBT which has been the tactic of its southern neighbour.
In fact this brings to mind a very interesting comment made by famous Canadian author Margaret Atwood,  who, when asked why  Canada hadn’t experienced a similar banking financial crisis as that experienced to the south, she simply said,
“Well you see in Canada the Scotts arrived, and although it may be fair weather today sooner or later you’ll have to pay for it! And indeed much of the world is doing just that. You see in Canada the capitalization requirements for banks is about 2 to 3 times that of both the US and UK banking systems.”  Makes sense don’t you think?

The point I am making  is that  government involvement is an ongoing necessity.  particularly now with the stimulus package  proposed by the Obama administration. The private system is just too damaged to work on its own; therefore,  there is definite need for government intervention. Unfortunately, due to the existence of excessive debt in the US, partially attributed to ineffective taxation, the cost of this package is going to have to be borne by future generations for many years to come.

In conclusion,  I will say this, any country, particularly  one that has attained  a certain size, must, in order to ensure the interest of the majority of its citizens,  have a government that enforces  an equitable method of  taxation  — and by this I mean, yes  it must tax on the ability to pay so that the Bill Gates of the world contribute to the benefit of all so that  their fellow countrymen have schools, roads, and health care benefits and thus form a healthier society overall. Generally, the more government intervention and social programs a country has, the lower the crime rate;  I don’t think I have to tell you how  the crime rates of both France and Canada  are negligible as compared to those in say the US and Mexico. Here in The Bahamas we have government debt principally because government has not implemented an equitable tax system, and secondly it is ineffective in collecting the taxes that it has imposed. The result; THE TREASURY IS BROKE.   

So, as our Government is not able to provide the benefits that  its people  so desperately need, I try to do my bit on a micro level such that the company I currently run offers both a health care plan and a pension benefit plan for ALL employees. Less money in my pocket at the end of the day for sure, but I sleep better at night knowing my employees have coverage. I would only hope that some of the extreme right wing companies here in The Bahamas offer the same  — somehow I doubt it.

Yours etc.,