Economic slowdown calls for reflection

I once read a story of a man who said he would stop the motor that turns the world and he did. A successful factory owner passed away and left his investments with the sons to manage.

The new management felt that it was unfair for their late father to have made profits; pay workers as per their skills and yet all people were created equal.

In one general meeting, they announced that all workers will receive same pay, will have same titles (no managers!) and the factory will belong to everyone.

The announcement was received with cheers and ululations – apart from one young man – an engineer who had been researching on developing a motor.

He defied the majority and quit.

The productivity of each worker went down; no particular person cared about the performance of the enterprise – because it belonged to everyone.

Soon, there was no one to repair a broken down machine, replace the bulb and even engage in sales since this was everybody’s task.

Who will chair the sales strategy meeting when all are chairpersons? The current global trend to have governments involved in private enterprises in the name of “rescue packages” may appear good in the short run.

The flipside of this rushed belief that government will rescue businesses ignores the fact that governments do not generate wealth.

It simply saps from wealth generators the revenue it uses as mandated by the citizenry through a covenant popularly referred to as the constitution.

Governments all over operate in the realms of politics; to allow them to use public funds to penetrate private enterprises will breed interference in business and lead to unfair trade rules in the long run.

Robber mentality
If governments are given too much leeway into private enterprise by way of rescue packages, very soon, they will take up the robber mentality and issue ultimatums.

The best is to focus on the citizenry to ensure they are afforded opportunities to join the productive sector.

At the moment the status of the health of Kenya’s economy is reflected in the change in behaviour by highway robbers.

Robbers seem keen on cash flow rather than taking cars.

As an individual, you can tell things are not good when calls from your landlord, water meter man, the reddykilowatt electrician, and the garbage collector, and estate security among others compete for space with the plate of githeri in your house.

Hooked to a global system that had degenerated into a “pyramid scheme type of capitalism,” the Kenyan and by extension African economies find themselves in a similar predicament to those who find themselves at the bottom when such schemes collapse.

Our turn to eat culture has led to disappearance of genuine wealth creators. How can Kenyans and Africans get the man with the motor that turns the world?

The government ought to competitively lease out the idle land held in trust to farmers to produce food for both local consumption and export.

Instead of leasing out millions of acres of land to foreign countries, Africans ought to grab this opportunity and engage in large-scale farming.

Recognizing that each has different abilities, what the government ought to do is to facilitate a competitive environment that rewards talent and skills as opposed to one that freezes talent on the queue awaiting “our turn to it.”

With over 75 per cent locked up in small holder farming, a transparent competition to win tender to graduate to large scale farming will spur agricultural output.

Each one has a motor that contributes to the turning of the world – just don’t let it belong to everyone.

Shikwati is director Inter Region Economic Network james@irenkenya.org