Teefing pervades this society from top to bottom.

This translates into increased costs.

Low productivuty is just one more form of teefing with time being the commodity being teefed.

… but making a $ means covering costs.

Costs are inflated due to teefing.

So cost of living is inflated too.

Suppose an item sells for $11.00 of which $1.00 is profit.

Suppose teefing accounts for $5.00 of the remaining $10.00 cost.

If that component could be reduced the cost of libving would fall.

…. so too would the revenue of the supermarkets and probably the GDP.

The economy using O$A’s eonomic model may actually benefit from the teefing which may be viewed as one of the goods and services making up the GDP economic indicator.

Oh go John,

Now you have a moral responsibility to define “teefing” causing I feel dat allotta people bout hey gun got to plead guilty …!

You see if there is no definitive or standard way to determine the value of a man’s effort in the providing of a service to the consumer all the teefs could very easily hide in the open …!

@Sargeant

Assume that you made the above comment tongue in cheek.

We have unions, NUPW included which take delight in believing that negotiating annual increases based on cost a living % is an entitlement.

The consequence is we have a pack of lazy army of occupation we called the civil service and who nobody wants to offend by referring to them as such.

Anyway what about all that revenue leaked at the Port by customs not collecting it? What is the fallout from that multiplied several fold?

You see the point?

@BAFBFP

To be fair to Marshall he beats up on the banks as well.

Oh Dear Dear David, I have witnessed Marshall throw a pebble or two in their direction, nothing to shattering of course, just enough to have us mere mortals believe that good ol’ Marsh is on our side … Sorry David, I don’ buy it … LOL

The model in Barbados is so broken it makes one sick!

Let us look at the sugar cane indistry.

We have a model in place where the union negotiates pay increases for the workers.

The industry is riddled with debt.

On what basis are increases paid?

BU is not saying the workers do not deserve higher wages but it should be a function of productivity perhaps?

The sugar industry in Barbados is is fact a government work for welfare program.
Growing cane serves a purpose in that it retains the soil and prevents Barbados from becoming a dust bowl.

food for thought.

Ordinary bottle of Mount gay rum. sold in Canada for $60. Barbados dollars. Bet the Canadians make the most profit from this.

MOUNT GAY ECLIPSE RUM
LCBO 64444 | 750 mL bottle

Price: $ 29.95 Canadian
Spirits, Rum, Light/Amber Rum
43.0% Alcohol/Vol.

Made in: Barbados, Barbados
By: Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd.

@Christopher Halsall,

It is a fact that Cane retains the soil in Barbados so you would need to find an alternative crop to stop erosion of the soil.

Barbados needs food security. Imagine that there is an abundance of “west Indian” food crops in every supermarket in Toronto.
Okras from Costa rica. sweet potatoes from Belize. Yam and Cassava from Honduras. I even saw 4 foot long sugar cane pieces of Sugar cane in a Metro supermarket yesterday.

Barbados cannot produce enough of anything to supply a supermarket chain in a North American city.

Neither can Barbados importers buy enough to get quantity discounts.

Food security first. Then think about niche market products for export.

As for solar energy, Barbados needs to wake up to the reality that it is blessed with a great source of energy and use the Sun for more than heating water.

@Hants: “It is a fact that Cane retains the soil in Barbados so you would need to find an alternative crop to stop erosion of the soil.

It is also a fact that any crop takes away from the soil important nutrients.

That is why sophisticated farmers let a field go fallow once every three years.

Some let a natural crop grow, and then plough it back into the soil to help the next two years plantation….

Dear: Dr. Know-in the Know-You of March 19, 2011 at 9:39 PM “You people have to stop the nonsense of generalizing and careless foolish talk talk talk. Many people have been hurt because of careless talk–SHUT UP !”

Dear Dr. Know: Why are you being so sensitive?

Somebody mash you corns?

(Buju Banton is not in trouble for careless talk. Buju has been convicted because he was willing to buy/sell/distribute/use cocaine. The cocaine thing is a criminal offense, talk isn’t.)

Quoting Dr. Know “Leave Customs to Customs.”

I’d much prefer to leave Customs to the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions. I have no confidence that Customs can or will ever disipline themselves.

If Customs officers don’t tief for themselves and their higher-ups how than can you explain Customs officers living a $300.000 dollars per year on a $30,000 per year salary.

And remebber remember the old saying “You can hide and buy ground but you can’t hide and work it”

Or to put it another way we the taxpayers see when you are spending your ill-gotten gains.

Christopher Halsall | March 19, 2011 at 9:12 PM | @Hants: “The sugar industry in Barbados is is fact a government work for welfare program.

I agree.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Actually if the true position were known what would emerge would be that GOB was heavily indebted to the sugar industry.

The Port is made out of sugar money as is the QEH.

Common sense would indicate that the major economic activity built the Barbados we know today at a time when tourism was in its infancy.

@John the same “magic of compound interest” would find that the sugar industry owes reparations to the slaves and workers who were exploited in the past.

The sugarcane industry in Barbados is doomed to failure unless there is some new niche market product that can be produced from sugar cane.

Mount Gay rum is already sold in Canada at the same price as Johnny walker red label. $29.95 Canadian.

Dear John:
If someone is owed a debt (or wages for work already performed) and thatt person dies, does the death cancel the debt?

Oh I wish that I lived in your paradise and that my estate didn’t have to pay my debts.

Agree David …… but try running a business that is constantly hamstrung by Government interference and emotion and is also subject to the vagaries of the weather. You will find the best and the worst managers in the sugar industry.

Those who can break even or turn a profit, and there are some, overcome both the weather …. and the Government. One of Colin Hudson’s favourite graphs was the one with a plot of sugar output vs Government assistance!!

The Barbados Sugar Industry has been until, the post Independence period, on the cutting edge of technology in the production of sugar from cane.

That is a simple fact of history.

Since the late 1980’s it has just been marking time as its assets have been more and more covetously regarded by politicians and their croney’s.

Economic models that have no economic foresight have been imposed upon it.

Have a read of Robert Goddard’s article in the William and Mary Quarterly journal.

I think it is called the Barbados Planter Class and it looks at the period 1980 to 2000 or thereabouts. Historians are documenting the slide.

The point is the sugar industry didn’t just wake up one day and find itself in the position it is in. It was put there over a period of time, … and I agree that like most economic activities in Barbados, poor management is a factor!!

It is like the Water Authority, no strategic foresight or planning for too long.

We will see what we will see!!!!!! …. que sera, sera.

I think that you could experiment trapping CO2 in the rum product and market it as “Bublerum” (no chewing required …!)