Extortion as economic rent
Published:Friday | October 8, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Wilberne Persaud, Financial Gleaner Columnist
Coronation Market, also known in short form as 'Curry', is a vital hub in the distribution chain for Jamaican farmers. It provides a livelihood for countless families that depend on higglers linking rural farmers, urban middle- and working-class and suburban higher-income dwellers.
The phenomenon of the 'Gold Coast' - the stretch of vendors at the Barbican roundabout - stood several years ago as ample testimony to the latter.
The choicest banana, East Indian and Julie mangoes, star apple, naseberry and the like were always there on show and sale. This bounty came via Coronation Market or higglers whose mainstay was, indeed, Curry. Interactions of this sort are central to development of commerce and provisioning of cities worldwide.
Tropical storm Nicole made us stand up and take note in face of disruptions to this trade, by the impact of recent flood rains.
Nevertheless, we need to pause and consider another disruption, one within our power to confront and control, one not bearing the stamp of Mother Nature's awesome power. This is the scourge of extortion, so eloquently put to The Gleaner's Marie-Liese George and reported in the October 2 edition of the paper.
George reports that: "Jean, one of Coronation Market's many vendors, believed the problems that she and other vendors are facing are not caused so much by the recent weather, but by the recent security operations in neighbouring Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town."
The vendor's take on the matter was highly instructive: "Remember all those likkle roadside people weh used to set up dem likkle supm, come buy a 10 lb a Irish (potato) every morning? Most a dem stop cah di bwoy dem pon di corner, weh drink dem Guinness and dem dis and what have you, kill dem off wid extortion, so most of dem just cut it off."
Extortion fits what economists call rent. It is a business cost having no true benefit to society. Extortion is paid merely to do business, to avoid a negative - the 'front-up di money or mi ah go mash up you business' threat.
These expenditures deliver value to neither the public nor the vendor paying the extortionist. It is an illegal fee/tax enforced by violence or its credible threat.
A ubiquitous phenomenon of the extremely poor urban residential area is the small, very small, shopkeeper operating from a roadside, often makeshift, stall. Jean describes them as "dem likkle roadside people". These roadside people are indeed the larder, virtual kitchen cupboard for a host of people able to buy only two slices of bread at a time, or an ounce of butter, a slice of cheese, or one or two potatoes. The 'likkle roadside people' perform an essential function in these neighbourhoods.
In the trade-off between donmanship and the rule of law, an important element is the security a don provides for a place such as Curry.
With Dudus gone, vendors identify causation based on their life experience. They need no scientific survey to tell them why: "Di bwoy dem pon di corner weh drink dem Guiness ... kill dem off wid extortion".
Curry has a police station in its midst, yet these happenings persist. Everyone knows about it. Why can't we do something to curb it? But then, if we put a stop to it, how will the 'bwoy dem pon di corner' eat a food and drink a Guinness? Can they sustain the discipline of full-time employment, even if provided?
The first priority for the State and Government is provision of security. Yet even without going as far as invoking the basis of government in a democracy, plain, ordinary, everyday commerce is unsustainable without security of the person, goods and property. Without security, survival of the fittest brutishness shall prevail.
Thus, business at Curry remains precarious with perception of the future uncertain. Human decision-making always faces incomplete information.
We fill in the unknown with perceptions and our personal take on the future. Two major things hobbling profitable investment and effort in today's Jamaica are readily identifiable: extortion and corruption. They both provide no net benefit to the public good, even as they line the pockets of a few individuals.
Jamaicans know this. Were one to question a representative sample of us on the way we perceive the Contractor General, I wager both office and incumbent would gain, unsurprisingly, rather high marks.
Of course, the Contractor General should leave trumpeting to Louis Armstrong and Wynton Marsalis, both hard acts to follow, yet we sorely need the gumption to tackle these problems, for like the parasitic love bush, they ultimately destroy the very host upon which their success depends.