Rich getting richer, and poor poorer
Published:Thursday | October 13, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Last Sunday's Gleaner quoted this month's International Monetary Fund (IMF) report as claiming that poverty, income inequality and unemployment are on the rise in Jamaica. According to the report, Jamaica's unequal distribution of income was ranked as second-worst among the regional countries, even worse than Haiti's!
This revelation means that the rich are getting richer in relation to the poor. While Jamaicans were told that the nation could not afford to increase the minimum wage, increases were somehow made to those at the top of the pay scale.
That persons who are wealthy are getting richer, and persons who are poor getting poorer, should not be surprising based on the other figures released by the IMF. Jamaica's unemployment rate of 11.8 per cent is the second-highest in the region. How come the IMF knows our unemployment rate when we were told that the Government could not produce the unemployment figures because the responsible government agency was conducting the census? Apparently, joblessness is increasing.
Furthermore, the poverty figures are startling. Jamaica has the fourth-highest poverty rate of 43.1 per cent when poverty is defined as the share of the population earning less than US$2.50 a day, or a little over J$200 a day.
The Government needs to deny or explain these figures. The Government's poverty line is $1,800 a week, or J$257 a day, so how could the government figures be saying 16 per cent while the IMF is saying 43 per cent. The official figures have the number of persons living below the poverty line doubling in the last three years, with 318,000 people on the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) getting $275 a week, or $40 a day!
In any other properly administered country, these revelations would be cause for alarm. And there would be special programmes to have an emergency deal to ease the burden on the least of the brethren, similar to the arrangement made by the IMF for banks that might suffer as a result of the well-managed default on our debt.
Woes birthed heroes
This unhealthy scenario of the rich getting richer and poor poorer gave rise to national heroes who agitated for better wages, access to land, and control of the commanding heights of the economy by people of African origin. This situation of rising income inequality, poverty and unemployment could lead to unrest not dissimilar to what propelled our national heroes to prominence.
Perhaps the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme, with all its faults, is easing the distress because it employs many unskilled workers. Perhaps the Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme offers hope with the emphasis on breaks for small businesses. There might even be hope in the Planning Institute of Jamaica's stimulus package.
There is an urgent need for accelerated job creation and economic growth which should occupy the best Jamaican minds.
It is truly amazing that these conditions are existing, and not a word from the Church, whether through ecumenical groups or denominations. In the past, even some missionaries would have passed resolutions, but we have failed to see Christ in people who are getting poorer.
About 13 years ago, Dr Sam Vassell, in highlighting the conditions of the poor, stated that he was 40 years old and did not own a home. There are such preachers? Would journalists and columnists write speculative and esoteric articles which have no foundation in data if we were living below the poverty line?
As a way to jump-start economic recovery for those who have fallen below the poverty line, we can begin to share the good clothes we have, stop wasting food, and engage in more recycling of items, where safe to do so.
The IMF report means we are in a state of economic emergency!
The Rev Devon Dick is a Baptist pastor and author. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.