Brother, Can You Spare A Couple Of Billion Dollars? After reading this article: "Clive Thompson Explains Why We Can Count on Geeks to Rescue the Earth," I started thinking about how difficult it is for some of us to process large numbers and quantities.

Every other day we hear a "hundred thousand this," or "a million that," or even "a billion," this and "a trillion that." But can we really appreciate the true size of these numbers? In particular, can we appreciate and process large numbers like these when it comes to something that, as Barbadians, we should all be concerned about, like our national debt?

Maybe some of us can (like economists or those of you who are numerically inclined), but for the average man (or woman) on the street, how do we help him or her, process and appreciate how much money our country owes? Simple. We must try to use terms and figures that the average man or woman on the street can easily understand and appreciate.

But before we do that, remember IANAE (I Am Not An Economist). Next, let's make sure we understand each other: If I borrow five dollars from you, I am a debtor and sooner or later, I have to pay you back (maybe with interest). From your perspective, you are a creditor. You have extended credit to me and you hope to collect your five dollars (the debt) sooner or later with interest (if you were smart). Now look at the big picture. Governments borrowing and lending, IMFs, World Banks, central banks, commercial banks, so on and so forth.

Okay, so what exactly is our current national debt? I haven't a clue. However, I did find a web-based article from The Nation newspaper, dated August 19, 2006. In it, the writer mentions that the national debt was almost $5bil ($5,000,000,000) at the end of December (2005 presumably). I also posted a comment on BFP asking if anyone knew what the current national debt was, or at least, a figure that a lay person could use, I recalled $4bil as a figure from somewhere and a "Jerome Hinds" seems to be in agreement with my guess. I also asked another source, and he/she told me, that as of March 2007, our national debt (internal + external) was OVER $5bil.

(Let's temporarily forget 'hard' and 'soft' debts and concentrate on the fact that a debt is still a debt no matter how hard or soft it is. Let's also put aside party politics for the time being.)

So, back to putting things into perspective for the benefit of the average man or woman on the street (and for whoever else is interested):

What Can You Get For Five Billion (BDS) Dollars? I'll tell you (hopefully my figures are reasonably accurate):

1) At $2.00 each for a plastic bottle of Coca-Cola (the price I pay at the canteen at my office), you could buy 2.5 billion bottles of the stuff. Divide that by the population of Barbados (280,946 July 2007 est.) and that's about 8,898 bottles of Coke PER PERSON.

2) The same canteen at work charges $1.50 BDS for a Pine Hill Dairy "box juice." So, with $5b, I could buy around 3.3 billion of these box juices. Again, using the population of Barbados, that's about 11,864 box juices PER PERSON.

3) At $2.25 each for a cheese cutter (a Barbadian classic and readily available), I could buy 2.2 billion cheese cutters! (CHEESE ON BREAD, MAN!) That works out to about 7,909 cheese cutters for every man, woman and child in Barbados.

4) At $4.00 each for a flying-fish cutter, I could buy around 1.2 billion cutters. That works out to about 4,449 flying fish cutters for every man, woman and child in Barbados (by then, T&T and BDS would've hopefully sorted out all of their fishing issues, although, there may not be enough fish to go around!)

5) At $2.00 each for a "bread-and-two" (two fish cakes in a salt fish bun), I could buy 2.5 billion bread-and-two's. That works out to about 8,898 for every man, woman and child in Barbados.

6) Tonight, I had a beer (Heineken) at Jumbie's in St. Lawrence Gap. With $5 billion, I could buy 714,285 beers, or (using the population of Bim) about 2,542 beers PER PERSON.

7) How about a new motor vehicle? No problem. Let's say a pick-up (I like pick-ups), a Mitsubish L200 costs around $90,000 BDS. (DISCLAIMER: I don't work for the local agents, this is just a rough figure). With $5 billion, I could buy 55,555 of them.

8) Better yet, how about a nice house and land deal? Nothing west coast-ish, something comfortable with at least 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a nice yard for the kiddies to run around in. Let's say it costs around $450,000 (DISCLAIMER: I Am Not A Real Estate Agent). With $5 billion, I could buy about 11,000+ of these.

9) What if the entire population of Barbados had to pay off $5 billion in national debt? It means that every man, woman and child would have to pay $17,797.

Why does any of this matter? After all, the debt collector isn't going to go knocking on your door asking you to pay up (don't forget those interest payments!) The debt has to be paid by the Government (be it BLP, DLP or XYZ). Where will Government get this money from? Simple, YOU. Your children. Possibly your children's children. How? (Remember IANAE) Probably via taxes, duties, etcetera.

What does the Government do with all this money? I don't work for the Government, so I don't have specific details. However, the Government has to provide and pay for education, police/fire, roads, infrastructure, transport, health care, water utilities, subsidies and host of the other services. These services cost money. So, can you spare a couple of billion dollars?

Labels: Barbados, economics, life, money, politics

6:59 PM