Hinds’ Sight---- Today is Budget Day: I am looking to see what’s in it for poor people

guyana chronicle

Today is Budget Day. It is one of the most important days in the national calendar. It is the day when the country eagerly looks to see what the Government would do to aid their cause. In this regard, workers, business people, the unemployed, the retired and students, all have their different expectations. It is the budget that would tell us how much the Government would spend on what, where and how. This is classic Government, as one of the principal functions of Government is the distribution of common resources.Contemporary economics theory and practice favour a commitment of most of the resources to the private sector—the trickle down story that the private sector, if empowered, would in turn create jobs and wealth. Nowhere in the world has that assumption been proven to be totally true. Not even in the USA, the bastion of market economics. In the final analysis, the private sector is first and foremost interested in the accumulation of wealth. There are, of course, exceptions to that rule. But to expect the private sector to go into business primarily to look after the common good is to misunderstand basic human instincts. There has been equal failure on the part of the public sector to generate the kind of confidence across the board as far as the various social groups are concerned. The socialist experiment of three decades ago floundered. Economists have weighed in on the reasons for this failure. But what is clear to me is that unbridled marketisation is not the answer to the poverty and economic underdevelopment we have inherited and accumulated. Of course some countries, which started out where we were at Independence, have moved ahead of us in macro terms. I say macro terms, because when you look closely at these countries, poverty still persists and the gap between the rich and the poor is as wide as the Essequibo River. Our biggest challenge in this country is POVERTY. When, for example 40% of your youths are unemployed, what you in fact have there is a weapon of mass destruction. Inherent in poverty are unemployment, poor education, substandard health, high crime rate and crucially the concentration of wealth in a few hands. There are too many poor people in Guyana. There are the unemployed and unemployable poor and there is the working poor. Without the aid of statistics, I know that these groups represent the vast majority of Guyanese. I am tired of watching the people who vote Governments in become collateral damage when trade-off starts. The burden to decrease and ultimately outlaw it starts at the doorstep of the Government. Not the private sector or the church or the NGOs or the trade unions. This takes me back to the budget. This year’s budget covers a shorter period, thanks to the foolishness and selfishness of the previous Government. I know we have to invest in infrastructure to attract investments and to make life easier for citizens. I get that. I know we have to give incentives to the private sector to induce them to invest more of their profits. I completely get that. But I want to see that balanced with investment in people, particularly poor people. I am not backing down on that. So today I will be listening to hear how much, if any, would be invested in creating jobs in the short-term for poor people. I would be listening to hear how much increase in wages, if any, the working poor gets. I would be listening to hear how much would be invested in opportunities for the creation of small business. I would be particularly listening to hear how much would be spent on improving education and health. Dr. David Hinds, a political activist and commentator, is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Caribbean and African Diaspora Studies at Arizona State University. More of his writings and commentaries can be found on his YouTube Channel Hinds’ Sight: Dr. David Hinds’ Guyana-Caribbean Politics and on his website www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com. Send comments to dhinds6106@aol.com