The Me, Me, Me Economy

Selfishness has no place in Success. The Success of any Economic Driver is based upon demand and supply. Demand created by people; consumers, users, customers, retailers and resellers. Supply is also generated by people; extractors of raw materials, transporters, manufacturers and processors of inputs. This supply and demand rules across all basic living components. Infrastructure demands architectural, engineering, designs, building materials and construction skills to Supply housing, roads, vehicles, industrial, commercial and entertainment spaces. Similarly, Security, Health and Education all need people, groups and teams, horizontally and vertically integrated, to provide and produce any measure of success. The selfish actor can only cause breakdowns.

Happiness vs. Wealth

Sometimes, for a wider audience, a pure academic debate needs to be flavoured with some common sense, to move from ideas to implementation. Whether a nation or society is supported by one large economic driver or many smaller revenue sources, is not the core issue. The mission must be to create and preserve A Happy Society which will require consensus between decent people. The widening wealth gap presences the greatest risk to human peaceful development and existence and while the debate continues, the status co persists and nothing new and innovative is getting done to slow or stop or reverse this devastating gap.

Defining Success

Success is to make life better, judged by the wider society. Many nations elect politicians based on their track record on economic issues; Job Creation, business opportunities, Productivity measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Diversification across Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). Therefore, the focus is on and across new Economic Drivers SYNERGIES to meet the nations’ highly needed Revenue Earnings projections. The historical risks, in such thinking, has always been, leaving people behind in a state of poverty, unemployment, increasing crime and eventually leading to insurrection. A new measure is slowly taking hold as nations seek to close the Wealth Gap. Success must and will soon be measured by A Happiness Index.

Foreign Direct Investment 2020

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)

The World Bank forecasts global growth, as continued to soften in 2019. Subdued investment in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) is dampening potential growth prospects. Risks to the outlook remain firmly on the downside, including the possibility of escalating trade tensions. Another concern is rising debt, which may make it difficult for EMDEs to respond to adverse developments and to finance growth-enhancing investments. The International Monetary Fund (IMF): Global growth is forecast at 3.0 percent for 2019, its lowest level since 2008–09 and a 0.3 percentage point downgrade from the April 2019 World Economic Outlook. Growth is projected to pick up to 3.4 percent in 2020 (a 0.2 percentage point downward revision compared with April), reflecting primarily a projected improvement in economic performance in a number of emerging markets in Latin America, the Middle East, and emerging and developing Europe that are under macroeconomic strain.

People drive Diversification

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)



Historical Economist will point out many successes and failures which proves that diversification is more about tax revenue collection than increasing local opportunities and jobs. As the world became a more connected place, through electronic technological advances in intelligence, communication and transportation, worldwide competition destroyed mid-central opportunities and jobs. Today, economic drivers consolidate, in locations of the finish product, essential raw material inputs and employ, global communication and transportation strategies, in its distribution channels. The future must, therefore, adapt to the movement of highly educated, skilled and talented people, following the sustainable development, growth opportunities and their dependable jobs.

Governance 2020

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)

This category, allocated 4.31% of the nation’s total expenditure, as reported by the office of the Auditor General 2018 and 4.21% in the 2019 revised estimates, while estimating 5.55% for 2020 up by 41.43%, as published by the Ministry of Finance, consist of positions, offices, agencies and ministries that monitors good, moral and ethical, behavior. Noting that, A nation's development is badly hindered and retarded by individual greed; corrupt public officers, bias reporting, unfair hiring practices, slow justice, unbalance dispute settlements, unlawful opinions, compromised records, a lack of transparency, general back room dealings, selling executive influence, misusing presidential privilege, laws to benefit the few rather than the many, practices and actions which have to be avoided, rooted out, dealt with and, ultimately replaced by Good Governance.

Fiscal Policy 2020

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)

Investment, Employment and Social Benefits are the opportunities essential for nation building. However, the nation's capability to earn from its present or projected revenue streams, increasing productivity, currently carries much less influence, when compared to the nation's power or ability to borrow and, of course, service and repay the debt. In other words, it is presently easier to borrow than to diversify. Fiscal policy, functioning on a budgetary allocation; 32.48% of the nation’s total expenditure, as reported by the office of the Auditor General 2018 and 33.74% in the 2019 revised estimates, while estimating 31.46% for 2020 down by 0.01%, as published by the Ministry of Finance.

Economic Drivers 2020

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)

The nation's revenue, to fund the service of the nation and offset its total annual expenditure, comes from the collections of taxes, duties and royalties, Returns on Investment and Sale of Assets. Such revenue generating activities are encouraged and facilitated via Economic Drivers, which designs, implements and reviews the conditions for investment, employment and, the resulting, recurrent taxation. Operating on 3.55% of the nation's total expenditure, as reported by the office of the Auditor General 2018 and 3.70% in the 2019 revised estimates, while estimating 4.64% for 2020 up by 34.28%, as published by the Ministry of Finance. Economic Drivers are administered by the Ministries of Energy and Energy Industries, Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries, Planning and Development, Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Labour and Small Enterprise Development, Trade and Industries, and Tourism.

Infrastructure Management 2020

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)

It has been long realized and accepted that Infrastructure Management directly affects productivity; outputs driven by comfortable and safe work and play spaces, such as; water and electricity, industrial parks, administration offices, community centers, open parks, transport hubs, roads and bridges, etc. Utilizing 20.75% of the nation’s total expenditure, as reported by the office of the Auditor General 2018 and 19.73% in the 2019 revised estimates, while estimating 18.69% for 2020 up by 1.55%, as published by the Ministry of Finance, the Infrastructure Management category consist of the ministries of Public Utilities, Works and Transport, the Tobago House of Assembly, the ministries of Rural Development and Local Government, and Housing and Urban Development.

Human Development 2020

(An extract from Foreign Direct Investment 2020)

The progress of any country, nation, society is driven by its human resource and the development of such; its citizenry, its people, its skills and talents. Noting that, growth industries and job creation are as a direct result of investment in ideas, and the only true source of ideas is the human being. A population that is educated, healthy, well-adjusted as a society, contributing in the community, supporting culture and the arts, participating in competitive sport and encouraging the youth, will build and maintain a happy, respectful, caring and sharing nation. The Human Development category consist of budgetary allocations, 28.91% of the nation’s total expenditure, as reported by the office of the Auditor General 2018 and 29.18% in the 2019 revised estimates, while estimating 28.83% up by 5.95% for 2020, as published estimates by the Ministry of Finance.