The free market ain’t free

SINT MAARTEN (COMMENTARY - By Pedro de Weever) - In spite of its needy and noble intentions, the market has and will regulate itself.

But what and who will regulate those intricate elements that are manipulation by economic, financial, socio-cultural and political factors in this free market. That’s the question.

Who is to tell someone, a local, a stranger, a foreigner, a guest, a born to be here, a tourist—how, when, where, why, and what to do? From a succulent Chinese meal to an exhilarating ride on a four-wheeler to hours on the beach to a grand ole land, condo, or hotel investment and development with dollars from who knows where, this is all Capitalism manifest.

This is what we want, have always wanted, a better life, a comfortable home, free of crime, a nice car, the mobility to travel, to have a better job, to educate our children, to be comfortable, to ignore our vices, to do what we want within the limits of submissions to order. We even went away to come back. Paradise, finally … if only for a little piece of the rock.

From town to Cupecoy to Mullet Bay to St. Peters—the location is hardly the issue. The question is to what extent and how much do we allow this amalgamation of freedom and the market.

There never seems to be a point of sufficiency, not until the point of not being to take it anymore and we wommit.

But this is what we have asked for, maybe with a little variation, but that is unimportant, what is important is how much progress, development, and avarice is too much. Time cannot be reversed, so too should be for sense.

To live, as death approaches, true to your own inner constructed, selected, and sensible values or just follow some predetermined formula to exist. To live in a world with internal and external conflicts where life is questioned about its meaning and purpose.

This is an existential issue—the persistent crisis.

With the many crises going on in this world—inequality, crime, capitalism, poverty, democracy, environmental, mental health, technology, war, taxes, health, pension, and waste. What better way to reflect on these grand issues and imagine a better world than to think of the opposite.

Let us not wait for another deviation that hurts our ego, touches our nerve, and abrades our pride. This ticklishness is too fickle.

The fact of the matter is that we have always been offended, as well as offend. Yet we persist. Grow the numbers, they say. Grow the wealth, even through the back door. Forget about the leakages. Let’s glance over the means on the way to the end.

But imagine a world of musical chairs of investments, foreign and domestic, that the goal is exactly the opposite.

By Pedro de Weever