SOMETIME ago I was involved in a debate on the optimal size of Barbados’ population and the position which I took and continue to take is not popular. Some of the disguised social conservatives, who believe in maintaining the status-quo and the pecking order, are still offended by Barbados being described as a “parish” within the wider CARICOM community. Fortunately, self-worth gives us the right to have an opinion and more, not to value our opinion in accordance with whether or not it receives a passing grade from the moneyed class. The need for money is accepted but that money should be the basis for ordering the society is rejected. It is a false way to preserve the status-quo!For all the economic rhetoric which I espouse, I am fully aware that the only way to save the future is to revisit the values that have created the selfish societies in which we all live.The notion that resources are scarce relative to wants is true on a country basis, but not in a universal sense. The irony is that relative scarcity creates value and because of this a resource can be exploited. In a real sense, the value of any resource is determined by its relative scarcity; the scarcer the resource the higher is its value. This very basic principle is universally applied to manipulate every resource in the world, whether it is education, goods or services.Taking this basic principle: what resources does Barbados have that are scarce enough to have significant value now or in the future? Furthermore, are these resources enough to do more than sustain our present standard of living?The answers to these two questions constitute an understanding of Barbados’ future in the absence of revisiting the existing value system. If the value system is re-evaluated to redefine what satisfaction ought to be, then this would affect the existing distribution of the country’s resources. This is the fear of those who want to maintain the status-quo and the pecking order.In essence Barbados’ future is wrapped-up in not only growing the economy, but changing the country’s value system. The latter is much more challenging and so it is hardly ever discussed far less debated. But given the stage of our development, the change of the value system would have a more profound and lasting effect on our future. The country’s mass-based institutions, involved in education, religion and labour, must be repositioned to fully participate in changing the value system. It has to be a shared experience that seeks to address the distribution of the country’s limited resources. This experience may be initiated in the political arena, but it has to be led by the social institutions.For the good of the country, it is not enough for the economy to experience two consecutive quarters of growth that will allow official sources to boast of the end of the recession. It is imperative for us to find other resources to exploit, if not our standard of living will be permanently down-sized. This is the real challenge confronting Barbados!The recent proposed changes to the returning nationals’ legislation are in full recognition of the need to do something differently, but in this instance it is a sign of the administration’s desperation. The notion that the Government could influence economic returnees on a large enough scale to reshape the economy is flawed.What if the new legislation works as intended, will Barbados have to accommodate thousands of returning nationals? This will mean more housing, more schools, more health facilities and more jobs; indeed more of everything.In light of the above, it does appear that the country could handle more population. Perhaps the issue is not more population at all, it is simply back to: what do you have to bring? Once there is something to bring, please come!This change in policy is no substitute for the planning and hard work needed to achieve the optimal population.•Clyde Mascoll is a professional economist and former Government minister in the last Barbados Labour Party administration.
