by Rick Lowe
I realise the election is over so it's a good time to re-read the three proposals from the political parties released just before the poll. Read them online or download a pdf of each of them here…
The country is deep in debt and annual deficits are the norm yet spending and by extention borrowing will have to continue apace to fulfill either plan.
As we've heard before the cry will be the present tax system has run its course and we need to change the tax system in order to provide the promised bill of goods.
In this regard, when you read the plans please use a critical eye. I'm sure you will wonder where the funds will come from. Of course, over spending is never considered as part of the equation so it will continue regardless.
Unfortunately by the time Christmas rolls around one year, we'll come to the rude awakening that there really is no Santa Claus and we've misplaced our trust in one of the many political promises we've heard over the years and realise that government interventionism was the problem not the solution.
As Luwig von Mises pointed out in Human Action (Chapter 36 Section 2):
"An essential point in the social philosophy of interventionism is the existence of an inexhaustible fund which can be squeezed forever. The whole system of interventionism collapses when this fountain is drained off: The Santa Claus principle liquidates itself.”
Yeah, and look where that kind of spending got Greece.
It is not just our Government pushing for ever increasing revenue that pushes us towards alternate tax systems, but also our commitments as a country via Caricom, Cariforum, the Eu-EPA and Carib-Can trade agreements all falling under the auspices of WTO accession.
Time lines are at play, unfortunately most of us are treated as mushrooms with most being willing mushrooms.
Both PLP and FNM regimes have been willing participants, with the PLP being more Laissez Faire or perhaps slack,
and the FNM much more active but closed door on what they’re doing. (were)
Hopefully we the public may be appraised on what has been committed to in our name, but it has to be discovered or uncovered first.
Needless to say our little insulated world is going to change whether we embrace it or not, whether we are ready for it or not, whether we want it or not.
International commitments have been made.
Of course Trade agreements with the EU will only last as long as the EU so…………….
I hear you Treading.
Yes, international agreements do play a role, but the government’s spending is out of control, making them think they need more revenue.
I agree, but through the collusion of other governments and bureaucratic initiatives,
Higher taxes are their focus, not reduced spending.
Human nature always demands more, although the private sector is limited in its income and or credit unless it creates more!
What mechanism is in place to limit the Public sector?
Unlike the business entity or even private householder,
Government “ways and Means” is ever active demanding more.
We do tend to yield with not too many complaints, nor organized dissent.
Perhaps a day by day playbook, recording the “errors” in intent and unintended consequences by this new administration. There have been quite a few already.
Perfect! I bookmarked you site!
That is the big question, how do we limit the public sector and it’s spending?
It seems that we the tax payers are becoming the slaves to the government and it’s employees, more and more. I would hate to see how enslaved our grandchildren will be to the same bureaucrats in their day, that make all the same empty promises, without ever once addressing the issue of how limit the size and expenditure of the public sector. Regrettably we have raised a generation almost incapable of seeing the folly in front of them, and they still demand the government to provide this and that thing for them!
our current 4.4 billion $ debt would take almost 140 years to pay off at $1 per second! when and how can we reverse it. I still say Greece should be where we look to see what to avoid and what to correct, before we loose our sovereignty to some international bankers/governments that lend to our elected government but have our politicians sign our freedoms away in order to borrow that money, WHEN we default on that same debt!
So how do we limit the public Sector?