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A hybrid work model means although people have returned to their offices, there is far less traffic in Sandton. Picture: SEBABATSO MOSAMO
Michael Harris is exactly right in his explanation of SA’s complacency and ironic failure as a result of our resource endowment (“Nurturing SA’s services economy”, September 6).
SA has managed to deny reality for far too long because of its natural resources. Back in the day Eskom was able to provide unsustainably cheap electricity due to an abundance of coal, gold reserves were able to fund the apartheid system, and our uranium even created the foundations of a nuclear weapons programme.
But what do we have to show for all these material riches? Record unemployment, lethal crime rates, a corrupt and capricious government. Commodity booms only serve to keep our heads above water. And as Harris writes, it is not even capable of doing that any more.
We have to stop relying on simply selling our mined goods alone. We have to have some ambition and encourage a competitive spirit that drives the private sector to develop more, grow more, and achieve more. With competition comes better performance. That means more money, more jobs, more resources, prestige and progress.
How do we achieve any of this? Free market policies. Deregulate the labour market to encourage employers to create jobs. Eliminate protectionist policies so that businesses have to compete like adults on a global scale, and also benefit from world trade. End petty regulations and dictates from an incompetent state that just wants to micromanage the economy. Privatise Eskom and other parastatals.
SA can benefit from its resources. But it doesn’t even need them. What we need are institutions that encourage wealth creation. We could thrive in a desert if we just had the will to achieve more.
Nicholas Woode-Smith Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: Free markets the answer to our woes
Michael Harris is exactly right in his explanation of SA’s complacency and ironic failure as a result of our resource endowment (“Nurturing SA’s services economy”, September 6).
SA has managed to deny reality for far too long because of its natural resources. Back in the day Eskom was able to provide unsustainably cheap electricity due to an abundance of coal, gold reserves were able to fund the apartheid system, and our uranium even created the foundations of a nuclear weapons programme.
But what do we have to show for all these material riches? Record unemployment, lethal crime rates, a corrupt and capricious government. Commodity booms only serve to keep our heads above water. And as Harris writes, it is not even capable of doing that any more.
We have to stop relying on simply selling our mined goods alone. We have to have some ambition and encourage a competitive spirit that drives the private sector to develop more, grow more, and achieve more. With competition comes better performance. That means more money, more jobs, more resources, prestige and progress.
How do we achieve any of this? Free market policies. Deregulate the labour market to encourage employers to create jobs. Eliminate protectionist policies so that businesses have to compete like adults on a global scale, and also benefit from world trade. End petty regulations and dictates from an incompetent state that just wants to micromanage the economy. Privatise Eskom and other parastatals.
SA can benefit from its resources. But it doesn’t even need them. What we need are institutions that encourage wealth creation. We could thrive in a desert if we just had the will to achieve more.
Nicholas Woode-Smith
Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.