Increase Guyanese salary above the poverty line before the world stops producing oil – Prof. Clive Thomas

Mar 27, 2022 News

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By Zena Henry

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s primary economic problem, according to local economist, Professor Clive Thomas, is poverty. He believes that if Guyana is to address this and other societal difficulties from its oil riches, it would need to earnestly develop the capital skills of citizens as a collective.

He said that given Guyana’s short time to produce oil and gas due to the world’s gradual shift to clean energy, the country should focus on its people’s abilities’ in that direction. But first, the economist advised, the government would have to increase the salary of Guyanese to a level which removes them from below the poverty line.
It was on Associate Professor and Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Dr. David Hinds’ show, Politics 101 that Prof. Thomas reminded of his Buxton proposal in which he proposes hard cash be given to citizens from oil revenues as a “structured and direct assault” on poverty. “So, the objective of the Buxton proposal is to ensure that everybody gets a basic universal income that takes them above the poverty line as defined and measured in Guyana,” he said.
Prof. Thomas said that there is less than five decades left for the world to produce carbon emitting energy, so a priority initiative for Guyana is to focus on becoming a global leader in renewable energy within the decade and become an exporter. He said that many countries would want to “assist Guyana and use our model given our ideal circumstances of water, wind and other sources.”
Oil funds, he said, should be used as a bridge to future energy expected to come after about 2070 and that would mean taking every citizen above the poverty line and creating opportunities for them to contribute.
“I think by developing the basic income of all the people, we also get to generate their skills, their entrepreneurship in the development of activities in Guyana. In other words, instead of trying to find a central area, a government or somebody to lead initiatives to invest and develop Guyana, by raising the capacities of people at the basic levels so everyone is allowed to come into the ventured scheme, entrepreneurial scheme, we rely on those people to generate income opportunities, production opportunities that would take us into a sustainable level of living going forward.”
Prof. Thomas offered that well developed countries with a strong industrial or service base have used this very model of developing the capacity of its people to independently seek means and opportunities, but that is when the orientation of the society is to empower people with enough capital skills and knowledge required for them to solve society’s problems as a collective and not as a group of any experts.
The economist charged that investing in human capital will see new innovations in various parts of society since less people would have to worry about meeting their basic needs; with more time to create since the cutting edge of all civilisations is the capacity to invent, to make things that never existed before and to see things in a way that they were not seen before.
To the argument of citizens’ squandering the physical cash, Prof. Thomas said, that is a real possibility even as he pointed out that evidence in the world has shown that most people generally have an interest in their own future and their needs. In cases where citizens receive direct income, they have spent their monies on investment goods such as improving their homes, health and welfare of their families. After explaining risk assessment and actuary science, he opined that the percentage of citizens wasting their money could be about two percent.
Where inflation was put forward as a deterrent for giving citizens hard cash, Prof. Thomas said, if the price of goods and services rise, it would have to continuously do so for it to be inflation, but that would not happen unless the income of citizens continuously rise. For Guyana, that is a double-edged sword, Prof. Thomas said because increased income and demand would generate a response to produce more goods and service and Guyana is presented again with the opportunity to satisfy many of its needs that is imported from overseas.
With increased income, Prof. Thomas said people buy more goods and services that spread the income within the community. “So, if everybody has a significant basic income, then every community has the capacity to raise the level of employment and level of income circulating in that community and create wider opportunities for everybody in the community.”
Prof. Thomas lamented however, that the money must not be episodic grants and handouts that citizens cannot rely on, as they would be unsure as to when they will receive it. “What is important about this universal basic income is that it is predictable so it becomes part of your calculation of your live stream of income so you can make decisions based on it and not what if…”

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