Rebooting our economy

It is obvious that we must reboot our economy, like what the rest of America is trying to accomplish. The “capitalistic experiment” has gotten too big and too volatile. Now they are trying to figure out how to correct an experiment that has gone awry. The complexity of the mainland’s economy makes for extremely difficult decisions due to the many nuances involved but here in the CNMI is very much like a “test tube.” I realized the test tube phenomenon when I first arrived in the Marianas almost two decades ago and I often wondered why the economy wasn’t distributing the wealth proportionately and why there was virtually no growth in such a perfect test tube environment. I soon realized the answer was complacency with a status quo attitude and no real desire to experiment.

Just as I predicted, when the Democrats passed the federalization bill, our government took a complacent attitude about the economy and put all their efforts into shifting the focus and the blame toward the feds. All our efforts are focused on fighting federalization and it showed me a symptom of the government that also prevails with PSS—the inability to multitask, driven by the old and outdated methodology of one-thing-at-a-time attitude that will keep us behind. The government has not brought the quality of life in the CNMI up to a level equal to the mainland and the history of our test scores in education will also bear this out after almost 30 years. But what really got me during all the exchanges between the CNMI and the feds over federalization was I never heard once that the “CNMI needs and deserves our right to unlimited exporting into the U.S.” I call it “tunnel vision” because there was only one thing in focus—saying no to the feds just like some people at PSS have done to me just because it’s me—regardless of the merits.

When the WTO ended and the garment industries began to leave we became complacent and just watched it happen. Well, thanks to the world economic downturn, we have a second chance to reboot our economy. I actually wanted to propose the idea of reclaiming our right to unlimited importation to the mainland to the visiting congressional delegation that visited us but I knew it was a waste of time because it wasn’t about federalization but a partial solution to federalization. I was probably the only one thinking of a solution but maybe now that times have gotten more serious, there may be someone on Capital Hill willing to do the work with an open ear and objective mind that will listen.

As part of America, the CNMI has a constitutional right to produce as much products as possible for sale on the mainland. Fighting for a right guaranteed under the federal Constitution is something Congress will respect. We still have the contacts and the basic infrastructure for the garment industry and we only need to transform the workforce to accommodate the new federal law. We also need to get the workers out of those dilapidated barracks so they can be full contributors to our economy (paying rent, purchasing cars, paying power bills and other cost of living contributions). I realize people do come here to work so they can send money home and they will, it will just be less but they will also have a better quality of life during their stay. Everyone who works in the CNMI must be a full contributor to our economy.

So for those who want to fight about something, please fight to get our importing rights back. We should have been mad at the feds for ending the WTO, which was a “legitimate” fight. I’m sure that getting our right to unlimited imports to the mainland will bring back previous investors and do a lot to help jumpstart our economy. But we have a very small window of five to seven years or more to be competitive before the increases in wages will start to have a very detrimental effect on our garment industry. So we must put our foot to the gas and really get moving. The good thing is we have a President and Congress now that may actually help us if we can stop fighting long enough to try and work with the federal government. Our new president also wants to bring back foreign jobs to American soil, I just hope common sense and merits will prevail in the debate over this on Capitol Hill.