There are many poor Caymanians who rely on public and private charities even in the best of times. In the worst of times, much more so.

After each hurricane, many of them eat at free soup-kitchens and live for free in public shelters; their uninsured homes are repaired for free. Between hurricanes there are always Meals on Wheels for folk who can’t afford to order in, and there is Rotary’s free breakfast program for children whose parents can’t afford the fifty cents to provide a breakfast.

Government offers a pretty comprehensive range of free social services for native Caymanians. Free medical protection is available to those who can’t pay for it. Ours is truly a welfare state for them.

However, there is a severe economic recession on its way down from the USA at the moment, and the free benefits may not all survive its arrival. Government’s current budget is already under strain from the mere threat of recession.

How will it cope when (if) our local economy feels the full effect?

How will its dependents cope?

Despite massive investment in education, our schools don’t teach kids how to adjust to hard times. In a world of unsolicited credit-cards and easy car loans, and indulgent parents on high wages, how do children learn financial prudence?

And in a world of ever-rising stock markets and low inflation – which we had until recently – how do adults learn how to adapt to a new world where their government-mandated pension funds won’t be enough?

Most of us have watched our retirement-pensions decline in value, and we don’t know how much longer the declines will continue. Some of us may not be retiring when we thought we would, or when we were promised we could.


All Things Bright and Beautiful

Some of us won’t know how to cope, when the time comes. For the past few decades we have all lived in an age of plenty. We got accustomed to new cars, new houses, air-conditioned schools and offices, a choice of jobs, easy bank loans and credit cards, and decent medical care.

Native Caymanians (in general) have been particularly blessed. Their government guarantees them jobs when they leave school, and free college education is pretty much on tap. Their Immigration Law protects them from getting fired or passed over for promotion, except for something really bad. Their Rollover Policy gives them additional power to remove foreign rivals from the scene.

Cayman’s education system does an efficient job of separating the Caymanian sheep from the expatriate goats. Every one of us – Caymanians and expats – understands what his or her entitlements are in our respective tribal sectors. As the old hymn tells us, God set them in their stations, and ordered their estate.

But if we are to believe the reports coming from the world’s major economies, some things “bright and beautiful” may soon be taken from us.

How will we adjust, when the age of plenty is not part of our entitlement any more?

If we in the middle class have a tough time of it, how will the poorer people cope?

(Cayman’s poor migrant workers will suffer most. They have always relied on our prosperity: when our prosperity fails, theirs will fail too. Who among us will spare a thought for them, when the hard times come?)

In a rich little community like ours, it’s a shame nobody is offering advice on how to economise. You’d think government’s welfare program would include something like that, but it doesn’t.

This pending worldwide recession may well bring a change in attitude. Let’s hope the change isn’t too late, for the most vulnerable among us.


Phone-in Programs

What we need is an England-style Citizens Advice Bureau. Failing that, our TV and radio stations could schedule phone-in programs offering financial advice by experts. That would be a productive change from the retarded nonsense that comprises the stations’ usual talk-show fare.

There are dozens of internationally experienced financial types living here. Some of them would be willing to run a free financial-advisory service for those who genuinely need it, whether Caymanians or expats.

Why don’t our rulers encourage them to do it?

Waiving some of the restrictions in the Immigration Law would be necessary, but surely even the most rabid of anti-immigrants would allow that in an emergency. (Hmmm. On second thoughts, maybe they wouldn’t. Dream on, eh?)

In a severe recession, it will be essential to know how to prudently manage things like credit-card debt, bank-loan repayments, savings – basic weekly shopping, even.

The crisis is predicted to be pretty brutal. Already, people around the world are being caught without the knowledge or skill to cope with it. Even the billionaires of Wall Street aren’t sure what to do.

It’s no insult to note that our own MLAs haven’t a clue. In any case, they have spent too many years wasting Public Revenues to be equipped to practise prudence now. Maybe they would pick up some pointers from the proposed TV and radio sessions.

Unfortunately, the MLAs’ instinctive reaction to the crisis will be to appoint yet another committee of cronies and stooges. Well, this time, a committee of seat-warmers would result in real and serious hardship – for the poor of Cayman in particular, and to individuals and small businesses in general.

A severe recession would (will) test the best minds in Cayman – native, immigrant and transient combined. For once, tribal politics should not be allowed to stand in the way of the best possible solution.