The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Let’s get one thing straight once and for all: Bahamians have substantial savings and investments.

In fact, money that could be stimulating the economy by circulating as domestic consumption is instead lounging in the personal accounts and investment portfolios of Bahamians.

I am speaking, of course, about that tiny segment of Bahamians who have any hope whatsoever of saving or investing anything at all – the same segment that, as traditional owners of the economy, actually benefit from a low minimum wage and an absence of corporate or income tax.

These Bahamians can afford to save and invest in ever more ownership of the economy. And they do.

For the vast majority of Bahamians, however, the question of saving simply does not arise. Struggling with unconscionable consumption taxes, land prices so high that middle-class professionals need state housing schemes and wages that are in no way proportionate to the general cost of living, the notion that they should or could be saving anything is both absurd and insulting.

That it so often comes from the mouths of politicians, the very people who have structured the economy so as to make living (let alone saving) a struggle for the majority, is doubly angering.

A little over a year ago, amidst a pandemic that brought many Bahamians to the brink of poverty, I lost my cool on this very subject in a voice-note that was widely circulated by my late friend Kendle Colebrooke, known popularly as KCX.

While I sincerely regret any offence taken by Central Bank Governor John Rolle (a good man) for my admittedly ill-tempered reaction to his repetition of the ‘blame-the-poor-for-not-saving’ mantra, the source of that anger is undiminished.

And it will remain undiminished among thinking Bahamians as long as politicians and public servants continue to tow this thoughtless, cruel line as a distraction from their own bad policies, which make saving a pipe dream for most Bahamians.

If you want average Bahamians to save more, then pay them more and tax them less. Simple.

This, in turn, means more taxes and less profits for the rich, who in The Bahamas are essentially welfare recipients at the expense of the poor. That welfare comes in the form of suppressed wages, reflecting greed for corporate profits, and of high taxes on consumption, which, by substitution, spare those profits from worldwide norms of progressive taxation.

When politicians, the proud guardians of this system, then have the sheer gall to blame “Bahamians” (by which they mean poor ones) for not saving, it is simply infuriating to those who know better.

The PLP (founded in majoritarianism) has five years to distinguish itself from its predecessor, a party that is pretty blatantly and unashamedly the party of concentrated wealth and special interests.

That should be easy. But for some reason, politicians (even intelligent ones) seem to start observing the world from the viewpoint of these same short-sighted, greedy and not-very-bright special interests the moment they are elevated to office and begin mixing with them.

If he really wants to, Mr. Davis can break the cycle of one term governments and national decline that began in the 1990s.

To do so, he must drastically increase the minimum wage, control luxury property sales to foreigners and, above all else, tax the rich more and the poor less. If he does these things, he will see not only increased savings among a broader spectrum of Bahamians, but a stronger and more sustainable economy overall. And he will also be re-elected.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

January 23, 2022