ECONOMIST?CLYDE MASCOLL thinks that for the first time in the history of Barbados the middle class is in crisis.
Speaking at a St James South branch meeting of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) at Queen’s College on Sunday night, Mascoll, focusing on the topic Misery: From Rescue To Recovery, said that even during the 1991 crisis the middle class was still able to maintain itself.
“Since 2007 middle-class Barbados has been under severe pressure living on a fixed income. This does not mean that poor people are not hurting because, by extension, they are hurting; because people who have more are hurting, the poor are even hurting more.
“Since Independence this is the first time that we are experiencing a middle-class or a middle-income crisis. It has to be addressed,” Mascoll said before an audience that included St James candidates Sandra Husbands, Kerrie Symmonds and Edmund Hinkson.
The former Cabinet minister said that the 2.5 per cent increase in Value Added Tax was hurting Barbadians at every level and used a diagram to indicate that the take-home pay of Barbadians since 2007 had dwindled with the increased taxation.
He said the poor management of the ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP)?had exacerbated the economic situation, adding that Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler had underperformed.
Mascoll, a former DLP?Opposition Leader and parliamentarian, reiterated that he had no regrets about switching to the BLP.
“I have had no regrets.
I have moved on and I want my moving on to be justified in understanding that this party, my party, has a golden opportunity to win the next election.
“The next election is about removing this Government, rescuing Barbados. It is about giving relief, providing a stage for recovery because the greatest supporter of this administration cannot help but be realistic. It is a poor bunch that has taken us down a misery path thus far. It is time for us to rise again.”
Mascoll said that he had spent a huge chunk of his political life in opposition and was ready to be part of Government again.
“I have been around politics for 18 years and I have been in government less than two years, so therefore, I have no desire to be in opposition . . . .
“It is what we have to offer Barbados. We are going to rescue this country, but we also have to put in place the relief. What is the relief for this? It’s simple. Take the tax you have imposed off the allowances of the individuals. That’s the first thing you have to do because you are hurting Barbadians.”
Mascoll said it was a poor excuse to say that nothing could be done because of the prevailing global economic downturn.
“In the meantime, Guyana is growing by seven and eight per cent. All around us there is growth and you are telling me that you don’t have to do anything, that you will wait?
“By the way, do you know that Barbados officially is not in a recession? It has become politically convenient to say that the Barbados economy is in recession,” said Mascoll.
He was of the view that foreign exchange reserves were critical to effecting a turnaround.
“If the Caribbean economy has US money and pounds to buy what it wants, it does not have to worry about the bigger economic picture, it simply manages its fiscal position. We have not done that. . . ,” he said.
