You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.
– Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
Yesterday the Nation newspaper featured a story on the frontpage Baby John Doe. The essence of the story, to highlight the plight of a mother who is has been unable to register her baby, eight months now and counting. At the core of the problem is the fact the mother is an illegal immigrant, for over TWENTY TWO years and has become a statistic in the government’s new immigration policy. BU admits it is a good human interest story and we hope a solution is found to ensure the child and her mother are removed from the inhumane position they currently find themselves.
Our bone is not with the nuance of this case although the mother admits to having five children (including baby) fathered by three different men. The bigger concern is the carry cost to a country like Barbados which we are comfortably describing as a welfare state. Barbados unlike many developed countries heavily subsidizes education, health, transportation and ancillary services which are part of creating a social safety net for the indigent. It is a huge financial commitment which successive governments of Barbados have subscribed. Back in May when Attorney General echoed the concern that Barbados was rapidly becoming a warehouse for the unskilled workers of the Caribbean his comment was labelled by the liberals as bordering on xenophobic and non-regionalist. Barbados being a welfare state MUST be very judicious about how it manages immigrants who cross our borders given our obligation to protect out the social fabric of our society. A loose immigration and human resource policy will have significant financial implications. The incident highlighted in the Nation provides the opportunity for us to appreciate the multiplier effect of hosting unskilled and irresponsible individuals who are illegal migrants.
For the ideologues, the current debate may afford the opportunity to evaluate the long term implication of a socialist doctrine which Barbados has followed post-independence. The following missive from a BU family member is worthy of consideration.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
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