Aid or Enslaved? Part Two: Jersey

In Part One we looked at how aid can be used to support corrupt governments rather than provide a better life for the people of Africa. How bi-lateral Aid from Western countries may be used primarily to secure resource rights or to ensure that 'enemies' do not secure those same rights. At how poor governance in these countries leads to the financial benefits being restricted to an elite government whilst the poor souls are left in the same level of poverty as they ever were.

Today we are going to consider Jersey.

In terms of governance the system of aid provision is instead replaced with taxation and services, whereby public monies are collected by the agents of their elected representatives and these monies are used to provide public services. It is intra rather than inter area Aid.

The recipients of this 'aid' are twofold: 1) The people who work for the public to provide the services and 2) The people who receive the 'aid' in the form of old age pensions, income support and other 'entitlements'.

Corruption, if any, would occur: 1) where public servants carry out activities other than as directed by the representatives of the public, 2) in the over-payment of rewards to the public servants, 3) in the awarding of public service contracts on a basis other than that which would lead to the greatest value for money for the public, 4) in the use of these funds with the primary purpose of securing re-election.

Jersey's Civil Service 1973 or
Is this not a really cheap way
to show off my yoga toned body?

Resources in Jersey are limited largely to; 'land', a resource which can be used in two basic ways either repeatedly to produce crops or once only to be developed into housing or commerical developments, and 'sea'.

As far back as 1936 when the National Trust for Jersey was founded there were concerns about the level of development in Jersey's unspoilt natural beauty, these concerns have been growing ever since.

Until 1974 Jersey also had a lean, mean, low tax, low regulation jurisidiction, this environment encouraged the finance industry to come to Jersey when they instituted the Social Security Law. In human terms it was as pictured right - fit and healthy.

The 'aid' that Jersey received was in the form of taxation receipts from 'the finance industry' which were far in excess of that which a normal community might receive. Like those African nations, our governance was not sufficiently good. We did not make the same provisions that Norway did as it collected its North Sea Oil resource revenues.

There was a good start, but by 1980, the carpet baggers and asset strippers had moved in. Bribed the electorate with 'free stuff' and then proceeded to make off with everything of real value. This process continues today and we are on the verge of starting to sell Public Assets so that a few may profit from the proceeds with the first £250 million loan from the bankers.

A representation of Jersey's modern day Civil Service

In order to try to meet the impossibility of fulfilling the obligations of the Public that their representatives had placed upon them, the policy of expanding the population continues to this day, with the latest estimates calling for a further doubling of the population over the next 80 years.

However there are not sufficient jobs in Jersey for these people to do and so ever more public sector jobs have had to be created, requiring ever more regulation just to give these people something to do and ever higher taxation to pay for it.

Jersey's civil service now resembles and entirely, altogether, different human being again pictured above.