By Caribbean Premier League,Elton Singh Couva
Copyright trinidadexpress
Two letters in Tuesday’s Express highlighted the economic illiteracy that prevents T&T from achieving its economic potential.
One letter, titled “Price guarantees can hugely help farmers”, argued that such a policy had once been used by the now-defunct Marketing Board for pumpkins and “the response was so overwhelming that they were unable to get all of it sold and had to give it away as well as dump it when it became too much”.
The writer then obliviously concludes, “It costs nothing to do a similar exercise today.”
But, by her own account, pumpkins were given away and dumped. This happened because the farmers, giving a guaranteed price, overproduced. That also meant they did not cultivate crops without price guarantees, causing shortages.
In the other letter, headlined “Bring an independent arts council”, the writer argues: “If money is the main concern, then it should be obvious to the powers that be that investment in the arts is a guaranteed return; as long as culture thrives, tourists will come, and not just for Carnival, but for all the arts festivals.”
This gets the economics exactly backwards. If profits existed, then a market would arise. It is because of government funding and other distortions that artistes and craftsmen and private investors are not incentivised.
Moreover, it is exactly those artistes whose works are not in demand who are most vociferous about getting funding from the State—ie, forcing citizens to buy what they don’t want.
