Jamaicans, How is the PNP Working Out For You?

When the Jamaica Labour Party took office in September 2007 the Jamaican economy was in free fall decline with ponzi schemes, like Cash Plus and Olint, running amok completely unregulated by the state and giving vulnerable citizens a false sense of financial security.

The worst global recession the world had experienced in over 80 years then snuck up on the Jamaica Labour Party in September 2008 and placed the Jamaican economy in a more perilous state. Thankfully the administration of the day weathered that horrible economic storm, despite the main stream ‘pro PNP media’ and the PNP’s main ally the Jamaica Teachers’ Association blaming the JLP on the economic hard times then prevailing.  There were no riots in the streets and average real wages improved for the average civil servant particularly the teachers and police force rank and file members.

The Jamaican dollar remained stable at an average rate of USD$1.00 to JMD$86.00 for some two years, crime was cut significantly in the JLP’s last year in office and the middle class, while destroyed in the 1990s by the PNP’s abysmal high interest rate policies, had some hope of at least remaining the middle class with the lower classes having a glimmer of hope to become the middle class.

During the December 2011 campaign period the PNP, led by their populist leader Portia Simpson Miller, told the Jamaican people that times were too hard and it was all the JLP’s fault.  In typical populist propaganda style she promised jobs, almost in a perpetual state of hysteria at the time, through her administration’s Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) and that the average citizen would be eating “oxtail and curry goat” if her party returned to power.

Jamaicans, how is the PNP working out for you?

On 29^th December 2011 the People’s National Party romped into office in a trouncing of the Jamaica Labour Party no doubt based on their empty, populist campaign promises that the people of Jamaica couldn’t have given much thought to in how the PNP would deliver on those promises. After all the PNP had a track record of 18 and half years in office and not only did they reverse the fortunes of the Jamaican economy over that period they presided over according to the Reverend Ronald Thwaites M.P. and current Minister of Education ‘the greatest transfer of resources from the poor to the rich since slavery was abolished’

In January 2015 the Jamaican dollar is now USD$1.00 to JMD$115.00. and falling, crime is still out of control with the sixth highest murder rate in the world, and the price of food continues to move out of the reach of the average Jamaican.

Not only is the International Monetary Fund running the Jamaican economy since 2012 cutting spending on the country’s infrastructure as their loans must be paid first, nevermind the broken down elevator at the country’s largest hospital, the Kingston Public Hospital, preventing patients scheduled for surgery to be elevator lifted to the operating theatres, but gutting spending on social capital, the people, creating more hardships for them.

The middle class is doing horribly under the PNP, who had no care for that class anyway after all Minister Omar Davies had declared since 2002 the PNP had lost the middle class, but the lower class too is suffering and will remain poor and abused by the state as long as the Jamaican economy is placed in the hands of socialists who just do not understand business not to mention running an economy.

Let us look at a simple food prices chart of just 5 selected food items: bread, salt fish, corned beef, eggs and sardines in December 2011 and at December 2014.

Food item	Dec-11	Dec-14	Increases in food prices
Bread	$160.00	$248	55%
Salted fish	$715.00	$1,200	67%
1 doz eggs	$218.75	$300.00	37%
Sardines	$64.00	$90.00	40%
Corned beef	$201.00	$300.00	49%

For the selected items the average price of food in just 3 years has increased by 50% and the dollar has lost its value by 34% over the same period. This is a stark contrast to the ‘oxtail and curry goat economic paradise’ promised by the PNP populists in December 2011.

You can’t fool the people all the time

The Jamaica Labour Party has the better team to run the Jamaican economy and make life easier for all classes of Jamaicans.

The Jamaican people will need to understand that taxing businesses on an ever increasing scale so as to hand out free goods to some people is not an effective long term economic solution that encourages foreign investment. Nestle Jamaica that has been in Jamaica for decades has ‘pulled up stumps’ due to the hostile economic environment it has to operate in Jamaica. These are not business friendly policies engendered by this administration.

The Jamaica Labour Party promised in December 2011 to reduce corporate taxes to allow for more business expansion and to create more jobs. The PNP has increased corporate taxes since resuming office, asset taxes for instance, and the CEO of Scotiabank has publicly stated that that anti-business move has hurt her business.

The ever weakening Jamaican dollar will only make food more expensive as we import more food than we produce for ourselves and that will make life harder for the average Jamaican worker.

With a weakening economy crime will continue to increase making people more fearful in going about their normal daily business and with that more expensive for businesses to operate.

The Jamaica Labour Party had an effective energy solution to diversify the country’s energy dependence which has been botched by the PNP making it more costly to operate a business in Jamaica.

The Jamaican people want a better future and that only comes through visionary leadership and pragmatic economic policies not visionless socialists who spend other peoples’ money recklessly.  

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