My deep concern is that no one has been spared from the ravages of our economic malaise and what is being done to remedy the situation. Each one of us has been affected by or experienced at least one of the following:* Businesses having difficulty meeting obligations* Job shrinkage in local and international businesses* Redundancies resulting in rising unemployment* Fear of unemployment for those in the workforce* Insufficient jobs available for summer students* Inability to send children overseas for further education* Insufficient jobs available for returning university graduates* Inability to secure tenants, resulting in fear of losing homes* Decrease in rents, resulting in inability to pay mortgage* Strain on marriages, resulting in divorce* Increase in grocery costs resulting in more people showing up at meal distribution sites.One can easily see that experiencing any one of the aforementioned can have a domino effect on the others, causing people, like myself, to be deeply concerned by the detrimental affect that the economy is having on the social fabric of our society.Good people, educated people and “the powers that be” fail to recognise the concerns of the average Bermudian or admit that we are in deep trouble economically and socially and are letting partisanship dictate our actions.The demands for ideological purity have grown so strident that it becomes difficult to have a conversation or discussion on the economy without becoming disagreeable. We are going through one of the worst economic times in our living memory. The solutions to these economic problems are not easy and there is no one answer.That is why we need to work together and invite input from all sections of the community. We are in a crisis and there is no time for “one-upmanship” and/or ideological rigidity. The focus should be on taking substantive and symbolic steps towards growing our economy. If we fail to do so, it could lead to political and economic destabilisation.The debt experience of countries in Europe and the Caribbean holds instructive lessons for Bermuda, ie, not to let debt get to the point that debt service becomes too onerous and/or unsustainably high and leads to high unemployment, prolonged periods of stagnation and undoubtedly absorbs fiscal resources which would otherwise likely have been deployed in improving infrastructure as well as needed social services.The Fitch Ratings clearly indicate that we need to take action now to reduce our debt. It is a falsehood wrapped in a fallacy if we think we can deal with our debt crisis without cutting Government spending. Most of us in leadership positions need, in a non-confrontational way, to patiently explain in a clear, precise manner the magnitude of these critical economic problems facing most of us for the first time in our lifetime. We must match our rhetoric of commitments to the reality of the problems.