Gov't needs to cut its coat to fit the cloth

Dear Editor,

While the outcry by many against taxation on withdrawals is understandable, there can be no denial that unless the Government reduces public expenditure, by cutting its coat to fit its cloth, it has no other choice but the levy obviously borne out of critical thinking of which Finance Minister Peter Phillips is endowed.

In this context, while the Government must be commended for its policy of living within its means, which is often considered the best policy, I think the better policy is for one to live below one's means and to use the surplus for investment. This will afford one to live an above-average standard of living by increased income.

That is what I have been doing all my working life and, like Warren Buffet, when I last checked, often the richest man in the world, I have never owned a new car even when I was entitled to one at concessionary rate as a public servant. But I have driven only good second-hand ones, and have been labelled as rich by those who only trust new cars and became slaves of those who provide financing, such as banks — the most consuming means in our society, even transferring unearned foreign exchange to parent companies abroad.

I think of all the factors of production, enterprise is perhaps the most important and so Government should cut expenditure and increase enterprise by reducing the size of the public service. So that those public servants relieved of State employment may make their contribution as entrepreneurs and. at the same time, obviate the need for the levy and possible civil disobedience and the change of the otherwise good Government.

Owen S Crosbie

Mandeville, Manchester

oss@cwjamaica.com

Gov't needs to cut its coat to fit the cloth

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