Ideas@TheCentre
Beware of Cargo Cult Handouts
There is more to the South Pacific than just Australia and New Zealand. The vast Pacific Ocean is dotted with around 30 sovereign states and dependencies with populations ranging from a few thousand to 6.5 million in Papua New Guinea.
Most of these islanders probably haven’t heard of the global financial crisis. This is not surprising, as the economies of these countries are typically based on subsistence, small-scale agriculture, and some commodity exports (PNG in particular) and tourism. Most have become dependent on aid transfers, principally from Australia and New Zealand, and also remittances from family members residing in those two wealthy economies.
There is one feature of cultural life in many parts of the South Pacific that we, and the rest of the world, seem in danger of adopting, namely cargo cults. To believe in a cargo cult is to believe that a spiritual agent or high priest will deliver a munificent bounty to true believers.
Many people, both in Australia and New Zealand and around the world, have embraced fiscal stimuli and endless bailouts promised by politicians and technocratic advisers with the enthusiasm of cargo cultists. Like the island villager in the South Pacific staring out to sea or at the skies, looking for a windfall without making the effort to make it happen, modern economies are expecting government bailouts to rescue them instead of taking responsibility.
Greg Lindsay is the Executive Director at the CIS. This is an excerpt from a speech delivered to the Mt Pellerin Society in New York last week.
