Martin Henry GROW ECONOMY! Grow! But the economy won't grow! What makes economies grow, flourish and prosper? A lot of enquiries have been made into the wealth of nations. There is a famous Davies model for economic stabilisation and growth in Jamaica. Inflation has been tamed, the Net International Reserves are bulging, the Bank of Jamaica intervenes from time to time to save the dollar But a bright, vibrant, healthy, entrepreneurial people, blessed with abundant resources of many kinds can't seem to get it together and build a strong, productive economy. Something is fundamentally wrong.
The very factors which don't make the top of the list in the Davies model if they show up at all may be the most important the moral, ethical and social relationship factors. The Prime Min-ister's Values and Attitudes Programme may be the most important medicine for a sick economy.
I keep coming back to that famous essay by Warren T. Brookes, "Goodness and the GNP" which says important things about the metaphysical dimensions of economy in plain and simple ways. "Plainly, then, a national economy, like an individual business or a specific product, is the sum of the spiritual and mental qualities of its people, and its output of value will be only as strong as the values of society," Brookes argued. An enquiry into the fundamental values of our society is very much in order and some important work has already been done.
UNIVERSAL MORAL STANDARDS
Warren Brookes went on: "Without the civilising force of universal moral standards, particularly honesty, trust, self-respect, integrity, and loyalty, the marketplace quickly degenerates. A society that has no values will not produce much value; a nation whose values are declining should not be surprised at a declining economy" with a declining dollar.
A great deal of work has been done on trust as social glue and economic capital as real as money or land or natural resources. We are a low trust, samfie no growth society. And Government is distrusted most of all.
Brookes said the epidemic of crime is not only a powerful factor in economic ills but is an index to the values and morale of a nation. What sort of stability and growth can a nation with one of the highest murder rates in the world hope to have and to sustain over any period of time? And what values and attitudes are driving the crime epidemic?
A recent JEF study on factors affecting investment and employment in Jamaica found 92 per cent of managers identifying crime as the major factor undermining investment, job creation and growth. Apart from direct impact, crime has as an insidious, cancerous, undermining effect. It engenders fear, cripples initiative and drives out investments.
Nobody in Government wants to talk publicly about these matters because the votes of the poor masses deliver election victories. But someone has to say it. What sort of growth can we expect with the siddung disease so rampant. The capacity of the productive to carry the dead weight of the parasitic sitters has limits, apparently long exceeded. Never have so many sat in so much idleness and are still able to survive. And don't tell me that some authority must create jobs. Productive work doesn't have to be a "job". Producers do the carrying through taxation preferentially channelled into benefiting the non-productive, through alms, and increasingly as victims of criminal extortion and plain robbery. The gun has become a respectable tool of trade (and there are over 20,000 illegal ones out there), driving other tools into disuse.
Poverty is out-breeding prosperity as poor values and attitudes to human sexuality and to family life dominate. Brookes said, "not only is the family the basic social unit, it is the most fundamental economic force in society, the key to work, consumption, savings, investment and the whole thrust of the nation. Yet it is also the economic force most vulnerable to deteriorating moral and spiritual values." Animalistic breeding is generating parasites and criminals faster than the society can absorb and neutralise the effects. Substantial portions of state and business expenditure are merely undertaken to offset these negative effects, not to produce anything. No Government has the courage to impose an indirect 'values and attitudes tax' by refusing to foot the bills of slackness and irresponsibility. That would be too politically costly and inhumane.
Carl Stone did a Work Attitudes Survey for the Seaga Government in 1982. Stone found distrust and hostility to characterise worker-management relationships in Jamaican enterprises. " - Deep distrust, suspicion of motives, feelings of being exploited and doubts about management's concern for workers' interest all block and stifle the impact of motivational efforts by management." Check out any of the several industrial relations issues in the news right now to see how right Stone is. "Ideas [for change] that may be technically feasible will-be unable to show results due to the way these feelings by workers so poison their views of management's motives and intentions."
26-POINT PROFILE
In that other famous work towards the end of his life, "Values, Norms and Personality Development in Jamaica", Stone offered a 26-point profile of "the new core norms and values a contradictory mix of positives and negatives." Stone spoke of the weakening of strong family bonds, migration being a major factor, of violence and aggression being justified as legitimate responses to perceived injustice and oppression, of the huge underground economy thriving on corruption, lawlessness and illegality, of the decay of authority leading to a crisis of authority, and of the need for strong leadership.
Clearly political leadership, especially of the timid laid back variety, and economic leadership centred on managing macro-economic variables are not sufficient to the task of building a better, more peaceful and productive Jamaica. Values and attitudes are profoundly economic issues, and Burchell Whiteman, Minister in charge of the programme in Government, should be an integral part of the economic management team.
A recent Mona School of Business symposium was staged on the vital matter of "Transforming Values and Attitudes: Policy Challenges for Jamaican Society". The Minister spoke with great understanding there and many other insightful contributions were made. We are not short of analysis.
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
