Bermuda has the dubious honour of having one of the few governments ever in history to double its expenditures in less than ten years. That’s a remarkable achievement.
In most countries, this orgiastic excess would result in a stinging electoral defeat for the incumbent. The offending politicians would probably never get elected again, as voters remembered that bad government cost them personally in the form of higher taxes.
That’s one of the defining features of democracy: the incentive of taxpayers to turn out a government that does not perform.
And herein lies a major challenge for Bermuda: our largest taxpayers cannot vote.
Certainly, you and I pay voracious taxes on everything from bread to gasoline, but these do not come close to paying for the bloat of the Bermuda Government. You see, our Government is propped up by the massive taxes and fees paid by international business.
Ironic no? Because these same international business are tartly told to shut up whenever they voice an opinion about the country which they also come home. No wonder they are aggrieved.
The PLP’s answer is “so what - we’re The Gold Standard™ - get over it. If Company X leaves, there’s always Company Y waiting to get in, or maybe even Company Z.” They’d better hope so. Because if they deflate the international sector, Bermuda’s economic mismatch will be so crippling that the PLP will be a political pariah to the generations of Bermudians who must pay for it all.
Here endeth the rant.
