The attainment of political independence has not been accompanied by economic independence, but it brought with it increasing social responsibility on the part of the Government.
By necessity, the social responsibility has to be financed and so the extent to which such responsibility is met depends on the capacity of the economy to deliver it. The performance of the economy and the ability to provide social services are obviously inextricably linked.
The eloquence of language permitted Michael Manley to contextualise the link when he wrote that: “What set Errol Barrow apart was his understanding that social justice must rest upon economic foundations; it is to be more real than rhetorical.
“This led him, in turn, to a commitment to economic integration as the only viable framework within which economic development could be pursued. Following the inexorable logic, Barrow grasped the relationship between a regional economic framework and a political environment in which sovereignty so newly won could be defended.”
The reality is that providing free education, free health care and even free bus fares cannot be seen only in the context of social justice. There is a pragmatism that requires the Government to be able to finance such social provisions without undermining the economic foundations.
Barbados is not an economy; it is a society with economic limits. In a similar vein, a house is not a home; a home is about family relations but needs income to run it.
The fiscal foundations have already been breached and so the focus has to be on damage control. There will always be limits to which a society can expect “freeness” because in reality there is no such thing as a free lunch. There is an even bigger reality; that is, the time has come for us to revisit the role of the state in our second phase of Independence.
In the second phase, the emphasis has to be on functional cooperation and not economic integration. The former places the emphasis on enhancing the quality of life of our people within the constraints of our economies to deliver. This view stems from the need for us to see human capital as much as a factor in economic development as it is a consequence of it.
Politicians must be cognisant that the electorate’s expectations are best accommodated with a programme of economic development.
Although the word economic precedes development, there is no doubt that all facets – social, political, legal and economic – of development require management. So apart from the marketing of ideas, which is the more glamorous, the implementation of ideas requires work effort. There is no other way to achieve!
Unless and until there is an acceptance that this country has to be managed in a disciplined way by appealing to analysis and not rhetoric alone, the magnitude of the task which currently confronts us will be lost. It is time for reality to sink in!
Barbados, like any other society, is about the interplay of households, businesses, government and all the other social institutions. However, the first purpose of the interplay is to create wealth in the pursuit of happiness. Wealth is not a sufficient condition, but it is a necessary condition for making a society happy.
• Clyde Mascoll is a professional economist and former Government minister in the last Barbados Labour Party administration.
