In last week’s Beer-O-Nomics, we talked about Choice of Beer, Environment, and shipping. Here’s the last section on how to make this happen & creating jobs. If you missed the previous sections, check it out.
IF THIS IS SUCH A GREAT BUSINESS PLAN WHY AREN’T BUSINESSES DOING IT ALREADY?
Our current economic model allows beer distributers to do business with very little risk and investment, at consumers expense, as well as allowing them to pass a substantial portion of their costs on to the people of Guam. Even though outsourcing production and shipping adds a lot to the cost of the beer we drink, they can pass it right on to the consumers without having to worry about investing in machinery and the additional responsibility of running a bottling plant and brewery. On top of this, Guam’s tax payers carry the burden of disposing of all of the garbage that these distributers ship onto our island. The millions of beer bottles and cans have to be picked up, put in trash cans and transported to the landfill. Guam’s children just assumed hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to pay for the new land fill, which will be filled up way before it’s paid off if we don’t start making significant changes.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN?
This is a simple matter for government and it is exactly why Government exists, to manage economies and provide for the common good. First we would have to place a large tariff on imported beer. It wouldn’t take effect for long, just enough to allow breweries to be built and start production; not too long that they can delay indefinitely. Second, we would have to address our regulatory laws to be conducive to starting breweries while at the same time protecting the health and safety of our people. Third, we could use real job creation subsidies that would help defray breweries’ start up costs to ensure workers in these plants earn a living wage. In this way, tax payers are also protected from never ending subsidies, which has happened with our hotels and the qualifying certificate program. Lastly, we would need to pass a real, substantial bottle bill that rewards people when they collect their bottles and return them.
THIS WILL GENERATES THOUSANDS OF GOOD JOBS AND GROW OUR ECONOMY
This is just one way that we can keep millions of our money on our island, in our families’ pockets and grow our economy for future generations to come. With the massive unemployment and underemployment that our families suffer, this will help to not only keep our children on island to raise their families here but it might also start the process of bringing our people back home. It will also make us less dependent on the whims of the global economy and the cost of oil. While our small island will never be able to produce all of the goods and products that we require to maintain our lifestyle there are many other ways we can use the Beer-O-Nomics model to bring our money back into our economy. This will put us on the path toward true self-determination.