Population growth would benefit the wealthiest
ALL THIS talk of Guernsey’s population being too small. How is it possible that Guernsey, one of the most densely populated jurisdictions in the world, has a population too small if future problems are to be avoided?
Guernsey is being run as a business, by the business community, for the business community. As such, the population of Guernsey is too small for the business community. The goal of that community is personal wealth, and their method is to attract as much wealth to the island as possible, with tax incentives and other policies that benefit the wealthy. This is why our government boasts of attracting high net worth individuals to the island – their model of a good society is raw wealth.
The benefits that the island community sees from such pro-wealth policies are outweighed by the damage done due to the island being so wealth top-heavy; damage such as incredibly high housing and rental prices, a very large population, struggle for space, environmental damage and so on. Neither is the net taxation adequate to serve the needs of the island’s community in its entirety, nor the needs of the environment.
Such wealth-friendly policies really only serve the aspirations of the island’s wealthy individuals, many of whom don’t even live here full time, and the island’s business community.
The goal of the island’s business community (which is now very powerful) is, ultimately, personal wealth, not community wealth. To maintain this they want the population to increase because it is the basis of their wealth. The rest of us will see diminishing returns on overall quality of life, even in light of benefits accrued through having a lot of wealth in the island. The island certainly needs certain kinds of workers, just not the ones our pro-business government wants. In reality the island’s community has been made unbalanced by a strong pro-wealth policy that has attracted a very dense, wealth top-heavy population that can only sustain itself by increasing the population size.
When the business community say we need a larger population, don’t believe a word of it. What we need is for the community’s wealthy to more evenly share their wealth. They can do this voluntarily or otherwise. In the case of the latter, it would be interesting to see how many would leave the island. Our pro-business government should start thinking less about the personal wealth model of government and more about community wealth.
Name and addres withheld.