The economy is people. It is not primarily money, so the ebb and flow of emotions, wants, and needs is crucial.

We demand goods, services; others create them, and as they interact price happens. After a year of being beaten, battered and bedraggled to grow, we earned only one per cent — disheartening, but not unexpected.

Years ago I started pushing the “prosperity agenda”, but it had no traction; its finitude was not believable — idealist, they said, but not according to think tank the Legatum Institute.

Politicians are wordsmiths and a loud voice. Adjectives and sonorous words are their stock in trade, not measurable targets. I wanted Jamaica to be black New Zealand; as there was still is no black nation to emulate. Our three million people would then write a proud chapter in our ancestors’ cruel tale; a model for 60 black nations in which many still sell their kin, kill albino kids for “juju”, and do not write their history.

We can have “wealth, health, education, and quality of life” (The Legatum Prosperity Index™, Creating the Pathways from Poverty to Prosperity), so I am proud Prime Minister Andrew Holness embraced it and I support his lawful undertakings. But in the 2018 index we are 54 overall, 84 in education, and 109 in security of 143 nations; unacceptable!

Poverty spiked last year; also we are back to Glasspole:Edwin Allen (70:30) days with failures in school rising and Cabinet subvention falling. More important than book learning, we see no nascent sign of caring or wisdom to assure us education is winning over brutish ignorance and senseless violence. With six murders in a week under a state of emergency we may have 2,000 in 2020.

A prosperous country has 80 per cent-plus with the basics, moving into surplus on their own. Of the rest, some are rich, some are poor — marginal, unsustainably clutching the basics; a few destitute by reason of health, disaster, addiction, or lifestyle choice. But all need love and Cabinet’s care. Cabinet must engender real not fake prosperity. I may feel things are moving, but I alone am missing out; squeezed by debt for TV, car loan — you are in fact in the majority. So how do they create an illusion of prosperity when there is none?

Flashy, high-end vehicles are key; check a Porsche and salivate — many made it, me next? The swish cars a counterpoint to ramshackle lives is breathtaking but for the few. Workers need a modern light rail, charge-at-terminus, mass transit with air conditioning to ride in comfort, but Cabinet only sees the car, yet roads will gridlock by 2030?

Our Diaspora go back ‘home’ with news that “more Bimmer and Jagwa deh pon road a Jamaica dan yah so; even Shorty have taxi”. Cabinet’s import policy, taxi permits, cheap vehicle loans, so “who ded, ded an who live, live” is irresponsible! These subprime borrowers may soon crash a bank. The 50-ton, 18-wheel articulated truck in pastel colours spreads the gospel of prosperity; short of jobs, but kept going by old savings — fake prosperity! Glossy “auto palaces” and a used car lot in every district is de riguer. Many think “money a run”, so truss a taxi; the illusion traps them and soon it is in the used car lot; “but Inez nuh Shorty cyar dat!

Impressive housing and built environment projects also burnish the illusion. One Diaspora member exclaimed, “What lovely Grenfell Tower-type apartments, can firemen cope?” Kingston 6 and Kingston 8 have apartments like measles; most for investment not living. The Diaspora is agog; “Cooyah, dem have infinity pool pon di roof,” but are the needy served? No! One area where the 92.1 per cent live will get an Up Park Camp for police and one buxom lady says West Kingston is “breast and highly flavoured” — Amen. Cabinets housing policy is flawed. We need massive investment in housing for rental as young people leave parents’ home and, while they save for five to 10 years to pay down on a house, 99 per cent must rent.

Highways and toll roads are great, but may fuel illusions of prosperity. Stop for coconut water at the May Pen or Ocho Rios exit and the Diaspora voices exult; great roads! They pay US$2 pittance at New Jersey Turnpike, while J$3,500 round trip a day for a week is minimum wage for two domestics here. Do they praise roads which serve farms and poor workers? No!

Finally, Cabinet’s de facto import dominant strategy is flawed! Big Box stores offer Yankee goods (made in China) in bulk; their cookies and cakes make micro business for many, but local patisseries suffer. We hear, “We will build the largest number of houses of any Government,” uttered like fact, but it means “We hope when we come to 2021 we will have built more houses than anyone; find land, funds, pray no overruns and deliver on time; so wait and see!” Good news, unemployment is at a new low; the bad news is we see no demand spike to boost production; why? Do new jobs just add to the working poor? Prime Minister Holness, Sir, work, work, work as we want real prosperity! Stay conscious!

Franklin Johnston, D Phil (Oxon), is a strategist and project manager; Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK); and lectures in logistics and supply chain management at Mona School of Business and Management, The University of the West Indies. Send comments to the Observer or franklinjohnstontoo@gmail.com.