Barbadian voters seem unwilling to elect a third party to manage the national economy. Therefore, Solutions Barbados has only one candidate in this General Election, Mr Robert Toussaint in Christ Church South. If voters in that constituency allow its residents to benefit from Solutions Barbados’ constituency-based policies, voters in the other constituencies may want to similarly benefit.
Most Barbadian voters seem to believe that the management of Barbados’ economy is too complex for anyone but the BLP and DLP. We should test that belief. The normal indicators of measuring the management of a national economy are: (i) national debt and (ii) the relation of the debt to the total amount of money the economy produces each year, which is called the Gross Domestic Product or GDP.
The IMF recommended the unsustainable debt limit for Emerging Economies like ours at 40% GDP. Exceeding this limit should be a warning to citizens that their economy is being mismanaged – and they should prepare to suffer the consequences.
MEASURING THEIR PERFORMANCE.
By these measures, Errol Barrow was our greatest Prime Minister – by far. After receiving an almost debt-free country in 1966, the DLP Prime Minister Barrow seemed to understand the debt-trap temptation of debt-financing and left Barbados with an easily repayable debt of $259M in 1976. The BLP failed to overcome this temptation and skyrocketed Barbados’ debt, which forced us to seek IMF assistance in 1983. By the 1986 General Election, the debt had grown to $3.1B.
The DLP took that debt to $4.3B by the 1994 Election, but IMF austerity in 1992 brought the debt to below 40% of GDP. The BLP then confirmed their addiction to debt and more than doubled the debt to $9.2B by the 2008 Election, which was over 90% of GDP.
THE AGE OF GIVING UP.
The DLP seemed to remember that voters punished them for the austerity in the 1994 Elections, so they seemed to give up. Our debt climbed to $15B by the 2018 Election. This was 150% of the GDP making us one of the most indebted nations on Earth. The DLP delayed going to the IMF by overtaxing everything that moved – and did not move.
The BLP gave up as soon as they were elected in 2018 by not paying our foreign debts and taking us to the IMF. But after seven years in Government, the debt remains at $15B. The debt to GDP has reduced to approximately 100%; however, our GDP is heavily reliant on tourism.
In the Caribbean, a major hurricane normally results in damaged hotels and unemployed hotel workers. This causes the GDP to plummet and the debt to GDP to soar. That is why any normal debt over 40% of GDP is mismanagement – the higher the percentage the greater the mismanagement.
PREDICTABLE VOTERS.
Barbadian voters are predictable. Once they tire of the DLP’s mismanagement, they vote in the BLP. Then when they tire of the BLP’s mismanagement, voters seem to forget why they voted out the DLP and embrace them again – to our harm. Since our Independence, we have gone from D to B to D to B to D to B. It is time to break that pattern – for all our sakes.
My best advice follows. Voters in Christ Church South should vote for Robert Toussaint. Friends of Democracy (FoB) President, Karina Goodridge, publicly endorsed Solutions Barbados’ national economic and social growth policies. Therefore, voters in Constituencies where a FoB candidate is running should vote for them.
Grenville Phillips II is a Doctor of Engineering and Chartered Structural Engineer. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com
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