Rick Lowe
Larry Smith, over at BahamaPundit has an excellent piece this week entitled A Clash of Economic Models for the Bahamas.
Mrs. Olivia Saunders spoke at the Bahamas Business Outlook where the theme of the event was “Diversifying The Bahamas Economy: Fact, Fiction or The Real Alternative”. Her discussion was to be "the relevance of the Sir Stafford Sands economic model in today's business environment".
While we were treated to a presentation rife with political symbolism, as Dr. Saunders does not seem to believe that the country's economic model is worth the paper her speech was written on, I was left with more questions than answers on her viable alternative.
Too bad.
I am more impressed all the time as a result of the breadth of Bahamian talent and wealth and hence possibilities that brings. Yet to be told that it's all a mirage is not really useful to the younger generation.
Our system is not perfect by any means and a good place to start would be to stop all government subsidies and reducing the size of government itself and the problems the bureaucracy causes.
I would suggest even opening our economy to more and more privatisation of government utilities and even government services to Bahamians and foreigners alike.
Following some numbers on FDI into the US and China from Cafe Hayek:
From "2000 through 2009, the total amount of FDI received by China was $685.8 billion, while the total amount of FDI received by the U.S. was $1,799.1 billion. That is, America’s inward FDI was 162 percent higher than was China’s. On a per-capita basis, the figure is even greater: America’s per-person inward FDI during these years was ten times (!) greater than was China’s."
And last time I checked the US had the largest economy in the world and didn't get that way by closing itself off.
Even China has opened itself up for FDI so they can grow their economy to better serve their people.
The Bahamas, no Bahamians, have come a long way as a result of our open economy. Call it the Sands Model or the Pindling Model, the name is irrelevant, but to close ourselves off from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is certainly not the answer.
Maybe tweaking the economic system is overdue in some respects, but many of its benefits are there for all to see.
I am going to stereotype here, but it looks like Dr. Saunders is your typical leftish academic, who thinks creating some socialist utopia is possible, but don’t give any real details as to how to ahieve what they want, perhaps because they know the details to achieve their end would not be very popular, particularly in front of an audience filled with Black and white Bahamian professionals, many who have done quite well from the present system. Its a shame that Dr. Saunders is probably preaching this seem garbage to her students at COB, daily, but hey just about every university is filled with socialist, so I guess COB is really on its way to university status.
Hear, hear!