The news made my head spin too: Bermudians are better off now than they were ten years ago. The average income of a two-person home was reported to be $2,767.00 a week or $144,000.00 per year. I expect a lot of Bermudians were wondering just who these people are — and here I am thinking of our seniors, the underemployed and the unemployed, all of whom must number in the thousands, and who are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to make ends meet today; and this is not to overlook countless others who are employed but who are struggling to keep up, let alone, get ahead.

No wonder the Premier sought to distance himself and his Government pretty quickly from the picture these statistics painted. Stats do not always tell the truth. It reminds me of the joke about Bill Gates, who walked into a workingman’s pub for a drink one night and, hey presto, the average salary for everyone there suddenly sky-rocketed to $500,000.00 a year. If only.

Back to reality: here we are struggling to stimulate a flagging economy, searching out ways to attract more investment and to create more jobs. It is probably fair to say this is the overriding goal of the current Government. Not surprisingly. The OBA came to power promising to deliver more jobs and their chances of re-election may well depend on it.

But the question must be asked: at what price?

Some of the early steps in the name of economic revival have not been without controversy and expressions of concern. Two of those steps are acknowledged reversals of their election platform: the immediate abolition of term limits and abandonment of a referendum in favour of what the OBA has decided is best for Bermuda: integrated resort gaming i.e. casinos. More recently, they have floated the idea of pathways to citizenship and commercial immigration. On the latter, for which there has so far been one public meeting, it may still be too early to figure out precisely what the OBA has in mind. They say they are testing the waters to see what people think. But on the other hand, they have not told us who these potential investors are what it is that they would look for in return. The information may be more than just instructive but key to any informed debate. Illuminating as well, I suspect.

We often hear that in the current financial circumstances the best social programme is a job and that we need is an injection of capital (and we do) to get the economic juices flowing again. We are told as well about the benefits that can come from trickle-down, trickle-out economics, and, sure, while a rising tide may lift all yachts, not all boats are yachts and some have some serious holes in them. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith probably more accurately described this as the horse-and-sparrow theory. Horses devour the oats that go in one end and the sparrows eat what ends up on the road from the other. But few aspire to be sparrows, most of us want to be horses. Fair enough.

So questions have to also be asked as to whether what is proposed, and whether the plan which is being followed, presuming there is one, is going to help close the gap between the haves and the have nots, or the two Bermudas as the Premier described it.

It could be that the economic model that is Bermuda is in trouble. Tourism continues to struggle and will likely continue to do so at today’s prices, not all of them of our own doing. Think airfares and the cost of flying elsewhere. Potential visitors do. Neither can we continue to safely and comfortably regard Bermuda’s future as a centre for international business as assured. We face continuing challenges and attacks, including, yes, the reasonable as well as the unfair, as other jurisdictions go after our business. They believe it is theirs.

We are also facing the same forces that are bringing about dislocation and inequality in other parts of the world: daily advances in technology which see jobs disappear to machines, coupled with globalisation which reaches across borders, eliminating jobs and/or depressing wages.

Here at home the national pre-occupation this past year appears to have been on the need for austerity, prompted principally by the SAGE Commission, the recommendations of which Government still appears to be mulling over without any indication (so far) of what actions they are and are not prepared to take on board.

Let’s give the Commissioners their due, they did a pretty thorough job within the parameters they were given. Government does have to cut back on spending. But even the Commission recognised the need to be give an equally thorough examination to how Government can raise revenue — a RAGE Commission as has been suggested elsewhere, on how we can improve the economy as well.

What are the opportunities and options that are available to us to grow Bermuda, assuming we want to grow and in what directions? Run like SAGE, the people could be let in on an important and critical discussion: Bermuda’s future and what we want it to look like.

For sure, everyone should have the opportunity to participate in the economy, and not just earn a living, but a means to acquire a stake in the rock with the prospect of moving on up the ladder if you work hard for ourselves and for our children.

This surely is what all of us want and to which we all aspire.