I was listening last
night the play back of BBCJersey politics hour. The subject was
whether we should have a population policy. Deputy Higgins correctly
pointed out the illogicality of planning hundreds of millions on a
new hospital and school classes when we haven't had a population
debate or policy and therefore have no clear population model or
demographics model underpinning these huge expenditures. Both the
Education minister and the Health minster have prevaricated when
asked direct questions in the States in recent assemblies about the
figures and models behind their sizing of these schemes.
Unsurprisingly I
suppose the question of having a population policy gets mixed up with
how to implement it. If it is to be credible it has to be plausible
to implement. It is clear looking at past figures this has not
happened. The last policy was to increase by 150 households per
year, but the figures appear to suggest something approaching double
that. In a recent conversation with a States of Jersey Minister it
was claimed the only reason the 30% decrease in finance industry
revenues was not catastrophic was because of of working age incomers
of recent years. That might make sense if they all came to work in
other industries, but we know some of the unemployment is from
finance – it is inevitable given it is such a huge proportion of
the economy and of the workforce. But to claim the effects of a
reduction in a sector are ameliorated by more people coming in to
that sector does not stack up.
However the thing that
really got me vexed was the statement from someone else on the
programme who claimed there was a desperate shortage of IT skills
like web development, and decried that locals do not want to work at
menial jobs such as agriculture. I know several perfectly capable
web developers locally who do not work in IT. Equally I could take
you to some growers who have perfectly good degrees in applicable
subjects like IT. No one seems to ask the question why we have
educated capable people working low paid 'menial' jobs and eschewing
high paid ones?
Reflecting on that
question reveals something about society and who forms opinion. I'll
give you the gist of it by way of an example. Some years ago I sent
my cv to a local recruitment company in response to an advert they
had for an interesting sounding job. When I went to talk to them
about the position they were insistent I applied for a different
position. When I looked at the details I refused because it paid too
much. You could have heard the 'consultants' jaw hit the floor. It
never occurs to some people that pursuit of money is not the only
reason people work. It simply does not motivate, once you have
enough income for your needs. And if you reflect for a while you will
probably agree that the expectation and demand on you from someone
paying twice as much for your employ is likely to be far more. That
may put an unacceptable burden on family and other commitments.
There are countries
where different values apply. In Germany engineer is an esteemed
title, unlike in here where the connotation is a dirty physical
undesirable type of work. Similarly in some southern European
countries waiting table is a sought after job - it carries a degree
of respectability. There are even places where journalism is
something other than a despised profession. It might help our
situation locally is bodies like the States stopped talking about
'high value' jobs a something apparently reserved for immigrants, locals need
not apply. Similarly it would help if people referred to jobs as
worthwhile activities, even socially essential, rather than as
menial. However I don't expect such a change to happen any time
soon.
Those whose opinions are sought out and promulgated by our
media are those of people who are seen as important , generally
because they have reached some elevated position in their
organisation or profession. Unsurprisingly this is a self select
group – the people who wanted to do that sort of thing and were
motivated to 'reach the top'. Their values and aspiration are then
the ones that are then reflected as the desirable ones.If they are motivated by money then expect that to be seen as the norm for everyone.
