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Independence & escalating expectations
published: Thursday | August 10, 2006
Martin Henry, Contributor
This is the season of assessments about how well we have not done since the Union Jack came down on August 6, 1962.
We are better off on virtually every index of prosperity and well-being, except public safety and some of the intangibles of social relationships. But the real issue is not whether we are better off, but how much more better off we could have been.
The rising tide lifts all vessels, and much of our better off has been a sort of natural consequence of change and development in the world rather than because of any specific strategic action taken for our own advancement.
The murder rate has leaped 15-fold from 3.5 per 100,000 at Independence to 56.5 today. But once people avoid getting murdered, health and health care, education, quality of work and remuneration, access to utilities and public infrastructure,travel, transportation and communication, ownership of household appliances, cars and homes, levels of consumption including quality and quantity of food, you name it, have all improved. Poverty itself has been radically redefined.
Malaria
No one under about 50 can know malaria. The disease, which still afflicts vast areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America and remains the leading cause of death in the tropics [not AIDS], was declared eradicated in Jamaica in 1963. The country enjoys First World immunisation levels free, and life expectancy has stretched out.
When the Michael Manley government introduced the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy [JAMAL] in 1974, roughly one-half of the adult population was illiterate. Literacy now stands at around 80 per cent [PIOJ]. But consider Barbados and Cuba, under two quite different regimes, with near universal literacy levels.
Barbados ranking
Barbados, with the same sort of sugar and tourismeconomy with no bauxite or other mining base, was recently ranked number 29 out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index of the UNDP. Cuba, with all its liberty and human rights issues and economic hardships, was ranked number 52. In fact, seven Caribbean countries came in ahead of Jamaica at number 79. But 98 countries, 55.4 per cent of the total number, fell below Jamaica.
And the principle of escalating expectations sets in. People will always want more, especially in relationship to what others have. And the competitive politics of democracy feeds the escalation of expectations. Being 'poor' or 'developing' has little to do with it. From Canada a country which has always been in the top 5 on the HDI, comes the following: "Consumption is often equated with status. The quantity of goods necessary to maintain a 'decent standard of living' seems to shift endlessly upward, and we seem to need more and more labour-saving products.
"In the 1931 Census, Canadians were asked if they owned one piece of household equipment — a radio. By 1971, the question was whether they owned a refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, dryer, and a television. Our aspirations and expectations with respect to possessions [have] changed dramatically."
And we hear the British Chancellor of the Exchequer lecturing, with one eye on Franceand Germany, that: "only with rising productivity can we meet people's long-term expectations for rising standards of living without causing inflation or unemployment. It is important to be clear about the relationship between productivity, employment and living standards. Low productivity can exist side by side with low unemployment if people accept that living standards are not going to rise.
"But rising productivity can exist side by side with high unemployment if we pay ourselves more than the economy can afford. If people demand short-term rewards which cannot be justified by econ
published: Thursday | August 10, 2006
Martin Henry, Contributor
This is the season of assessments about how well we have not done since the Union Jack came down on August 6, 1962.
We are better off on virtually every index of prosperity and well-being, except public safety and some of the intangibles of social relationships. But the real issue is not whether we are better off, but how much more better off we could have been.
The rising tide lifts all vessels, and much of our better off has been a sort of natural consequence of change and development in the world rather than because of any specific strategic action taken for our own advancement.
The murder rate has leaped 15-fold from 3.5 per 100,000 at Independence to 56.5 today. But once people avoid getting murdered, health and health care, education, quality of work and remuneration, access to utilities and public infrastructure,travel, transportation and communication, ownership of household appliances, cars and homes, levels of consumption including quality and quantity of food, you name it, have all improved. Poverty itself has been radically redefined.
Malaria
No one under about 50 can know malaria. The disease, which still afflicts vast areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America and remains the leading cause of death in the tropics [not AIDS], was declared eradicated in Jamaica in 1963. The country enjoys First World immunisation levels free, and life expectancy has stretched out.
When the Michael Manley government introduced the Jamaica Movement for the Advancement of Literacy [JAMAL] in 1974, roughly one-half of the adult population was illiterate. Literacy now stands at around 80 per cent [PIOJ]. But consider Barbados and Cuba, under two quite different regimes, with near universal literacy levels.
Barbados ranking
Barbados, with the same sort of sugar and tourismeconomy with no bauxite or other mining base, was recently ranked number 29 out of 177 countries on the Human Development Index of the UNDP. Cuba, with all its liberty and human rights issues and economic hardships, was ranked number 52. In fact, seven Caribbean countries came in ahead of Jamaica at number 79. But 98 countries, 55.4 per cent of the total number, fell below Jamaica.
And the principle of escalating expectations sets in. People will always want more, especially in relationship to what others have. And the competitive politics of democracy feeds the escalation of expectations. Being 'poor' or 'developing' has little to do with it. From Canada a country which has always been in the top 5 on the HDI, comes the following: "Consumption is often equated with status. The quantity of goods necessary to maintain a 'decent standard of living' seems to shift endlessly upward, and we seem to need more and more labour-saving products.
"In the 1931 Census, Canadians were asked if they owned one piece of household equipment — a radio. By 1971, the question was whether they owned a refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, dryer, and a television. Our aspirations and expectations with respect to possessions [have] changed dramatically."
And we hear the British Chancellor of the Exchequer lecturing, with one eye on Franceand Germany, that: "only with rising productivity can we meet people's long-term expectations for rising standards of living without causing inflation or unemployment. It is important to be clear about the relationship between productivity, employment and living standards. Low productivity can exist side by side with low unemployment if people accept that living standards are not going to rise.
"But rising productivity can exist side by side with high unemployment if we pay ourselves more than the economy can afford. If people demand short-term rewards which cannot be justified by econ
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