Jamaica’s Global Logistics Hub – The Guinea Pig for a new direction

I would like to commend the organizers in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce for coming up with this great initiative in stimulating the awareness of the populace about this Global Logistics Hub project through the Global Logistics Hub Essay competition. I say this because it is indeed a fact that not many Jamaicans are cognizant of this project, or fully understand the concept, details, and necessity for the establishment of a Global Logistics Hub in Jamaica.

Please prepare yourselves for what I will be outlining to you as my assessment of Jamaica’s anaemic economic performance, and how I think my unpopular approach can bear fruit in alleviating this decade-long anaemic condition. We, as a nation, have been struggling for decades in finding the best combination of job creation and employee motivation required to kick-start Jamaica’s sluggish economy, which is so melancholic to my sanity. However, I strongly believe that the successful establishment, equitable, and transparent management of a Global Logistics Hub will indeed be the catalyst and framework for steering Jamaica off the current path of destitution and human exploitation of the masses, and onto the path of economic growth and prosperity for every citizen of Jamaica. What do I mean by this? Well, according to my years of work and observation in the workforce, I have realized that our current system of Capitalism has been designed in such a way that it facilitates and encourages egregious exploitation of the masses through a mode of compensation called Cheap Labour. This mode of compensation is the fundamental arsenic to the equitable distribution of wealth among all citizens within the workforce of Jamaica, coupled with the insatiable appetite of our people for freeness, begging, and borrowing in lieu of production, hard work, and the will to live within one’s means.

Capitalism by itself is not that bad, since it is simply a system where businesses are owned by private individuals for the purpose of profit rather than by the state. However, it is the marrying of Cheap Labour with Capitalism that has reaped, and continues to reap, havoc within our society by allowing only the group of elite to have full access to over seventy-five (75%) percent of the wealth generated by businesses in Jamaica. This results in approximately seventy-five (75%) of the masses having access to no more than twenty-five (25%) percent of the wealth generated in Jamaica. How on Earth could such alarming levels of atrocity be allowed to exist for over four decades without anything being done to nip it in the bud? Note carefully that I am in no way implying or suggesting that board of directors should not have the right to seek the cheapest reasonable operating cost for the business, since doing so in an honest, equitable, and transparent way will not result in the atrocities of a Cheap Labour modus operandi. For those who might still be discombobulated as to the difference between ‘Cheapest Reasonable Operating Cost’ and ‘Cheap Labour’, I will be more than happy to continue by clearly outlining the difference between the two. Before I continue in outlining the difference between the two, let me say that any country that aims to establish itself as a Cheap Labour country while the average cost of living continues to soar beyond the clouds is a country that is destined for severe destitution and economic collapse. Jamaica, during our fifty-one (51) years of Ceremonial Independence, has successfully earned the infamous title of becoming one of the biggest Cheap Labour countries in the Caribbean; and this has resulted in a massive influx of foreign nationals such as the Chinese to Jamaica in order to set up businesses.


The mode of compensation called Cheap Labour was introduced to the system of Capitalism in order to provide the perfect platform for unscrupulous persons within the business sector to fulfill their greed for wealth generated from the hard work of the masses within society while paying them pittance in exchange for their hard work. This results in the group of elite becoming richer and richer by the day, while the masses working for them becoming poorer and poorer by the day due to their inability to meet the average cost of living at any given time. This kind of human exploitation is further exacerbated by business operators finding creative ways of getting the already highly underpaid masses to sign open-ended contracts, mainly because they know that the masses are either ignorant to the clandestine abuse or too pusillanimous to fight the abuse at the risk of losing their jobs. Also, successive Governments have grossly missed the mark in putting policies and laws in place to adequately protect and defend the rights of the masses in our Jamaican workforce; thus resulting in the current clever foot-dragging of the masses in the workforce as their way of retaliation. The term Cheapest Reasonable Operating Cost simply means finding the cheapest cost of operating the business without abusing or exploiting any of the parties involved in the employment or trade agreement; thus resulting in all parties mutually and equitably benefiting throughout the process.


In closing, I would like to call for the introduction of a particular method of compensation for the masses within the Jamaican workforce, which I strongly believe will be far more beneficial in giving everyone involved in the workforce equal access to a slice of the big cake called Wealth and Prosperity. This mode of compensation is called Commission Pay, which involves structuring the workers’ salary package in such a way that it is made up of two components. The first component will be the Basic Pay, which is a standard flat rate for the pay cycle, and will not be the most attractive part of the salary package. The second component will be the Commission Pay, which will give the workers the opportunity of earning an unlimited amount of commission in any given pay cycle, providing that they meet the required reasonable production or service target equivalent to the commission they would like to collect in any given pay cycle.

As you can clearly see, this method of compensation would benefit all parties involved by allowing the business operators to generate maximum income due to maximum production from workers, while simultaneously allowing workers to generate maximum income equivalent to their production or service output for any given pay cycle. Hence, significantly increasing the spending power of the masses in the workforce, and ultimately stimulating strong economic activity across all sectors of our society. This will eventually eliminate the scourge of severe poverty and crime within our society, and create a cycle for economic growth and prosperity for Jamaica.

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