Andrew Allen Writes In Answer To Laying Off The Public Servants

26 May 2020

Dear Editor,

According to the Tribune of May 19, 2020, a group calling itself the Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG) apparently sees it as quite responsible that a country that runs itself on revenues representing a mere 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product (among the lowest on the planet) and that derives the bulk (more than 70 percent) of these revenues from taxes that disproportionately impact the poor while exempting wealthier residents from worldwide norms of taxation on income, capital gains and property, should respond to the resulting fiscal imbalance by further downsizing the public sector.

Yet, again, the message seems clear: we need tough, bitter, radical change – so long as it doesn’t touch us!

Rather than simply reporting such views (and thereby giving them a respectability that they do not deserve), the Bahamian media should at least concern itself with presenting them in the wider context outlined above and possibly even ask questions about who funds them and whether the special interests that would benefit from their implementation are representative in any way of the broader public good.

— Andrew Allen