Dear Sir:

As usual, Mr James Bodden (“Son of the Soil: Proactive Thought”) speaks of the Cayman Islands citizen as if he were no better off than a slum-dweller in a third world country.

The reality is Mr Bodden lives in a Utopia compared to virtually every other comparable small country in the world. Raising tariffs a couple of percentage points, when necessary, isn’t the end of the world as he knows it.

The Cayman Islands had no choice but to raise revenues; the UK had them over a barrel, waving their explicit loan guarantee. Without the UK backstopping the Cayman Islands’ debt; the future borrowing costs would go through the roof, assuming there would be any lenders left at all.

In the absence of a UK loan guarantee, Mr Bodden could actually witness a real economic debacle, instead of his imaginary one.

The only fair and efficient way to increase revenues in the Cayman Island is to raise duties and fees.

Raising import tariffs spreads the pain around, unlike prior administrations whose revenue raising measures were largely borne by the banks and foreign workers, sparing the average Caymanian.

The self- titled “Son of the Soil” conveniently forgets when all other variables remain equal; expats contribute far more to government coffers than Caymanians do because of work permit fees.

Despite this inequity, the higher-contributing ex-pats get little to no benefit, except the right to work for seven years (then it’s of course; adios).

James Bodden’s concept of “subjugation” and “exploitation” of Caymanians is rather presumptuous since Caymanians receive free public schooling and other government programmes that expats are not entitled to. Sir; by this measure, who is the exploited?

Caymanians who live in the US and UK can actually send their children to public schools and can participate in all government programmes while resident. Furthermore, Caymanians wouldn’t pay more for the privilege.

Obviously, Cayman cannot afford to offer generous social programmes to guest workers; this isn’t the point.

I just get irritated at this talk of how Caymanians like J. Bodden III consider themselves “prisoners” and “exploited”, when they pay less in taxes than their comparable foreign workers, and reap the benefits exclusively.

Trevor Kidd