NPP STATEMENT â MR. KWADWO AFARI
NPP STATEMENT – MR. KWADWO AFARI Good morning Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. It is a privilege to be here representing my party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to discuss the important topic of our nation’s development in the next 40 years. My name is Kwadwo Afari. My friends, Ghana is in a crisis. Our country is haunted by persistent economic decline and stagnation, mass unemployment and a government drowning in nearly GH¢100 billion national debt, rampant crony capitalism and total unresponsiveness to the will of the people. That is the problem we face today. That has been our problem since independence. The sad thing is, while we identify the problem, in reality, we spend a lot of time trying to demonstrate how the problem can be solved only by government and state. While we agree to have a sort of plan or framework or a road map, call it what you want, we, the people, need to make a choice. What do we want to see in the 40 years to come? Do we want:
A handful of blindfolded central planners who pick winners and losers, or the free market’s omniscient invisible hand, which dispassionately picks winners and losers for the good of the whole? Envious utopians punishing achievers and forcing equality of outcomes , or democrats promoting equality of opportunity? Half-baked politicians creating endless classes of victims, or statesmen who will shun demagoguery and create policies that will lift everyone up? A polarised Ghana whose ruling class dehumanises people through tribal and partisan and soft bigotry, or a Ghana that aspires to tribal and partisan blindness? A Ghana crippled by false promises of cradle-to-grave security and crippled by taxes and regulations, or one grounded in liberty for all and embarked on economic growth, which only economic freedom can bring?
The convenient and irresponsible assumption that every social problem can be resolved by social engineering and government money should be challenged. This has no theoretical base and ignores both the dynamics of markets and of culture. Ghana is in desperate need of change. But any long-term plan that is rooted in the belief that stimulus spending and deeper deficits will give the economy the needed lift will fail. The claim that the most pressing issue today in our country is equality and that to resolve it, hard-working and most successful people should be highly taxed, while the government redistributes wealth and applies more regulation is false. To get out of our economic problem, Ghana needs to fire up its citizens, unlock their talents, enforce the rule of law, enforce individual property rights and move quickly towards a liberalised economy that supports free enterprise.
The aim for the next 40 years should not be equality of outcomes , but lifting up those below. Helping the poor can be achieved not by redistribution, but by free trade, innovation, education and for equal opportunity to work. That should be the plan. Thank you.
A handful of blindfolded central planners who pick winners and losers, or the free market’s omniscient invisible hand, which dispassionately picks winners and losers for the good of the whole? Envious utopians punishing achievers and forcing equality of outcomes , or democrats promoting equality of opportunity? Half-baked politicians creating endless classes of victims, or statesmen who will shun demagoguery and create policies that will lift everyone up? A polarised Ghana whose ruling class dehumanises people through tribal and partisan and soft bigotry, or a Ghana that aspires to tribal and partisan blindness? A Ghana crippled by false promises of cradle-to-grave security and crippled by taxes and regulations, or one grounded in liberty for all and embarked on economic growth, which only economic freedom can bring?
The convenient and irresponsible assumption that every social problem can be resolved by social engineering and government money should be challenged. This has no theoretical base and ignores both the dynamics of markets and of culture. Ghana is in desperate need of change. But any long-term plan that is rooted in the belief that stimulus spending and deeper deficits will give the economy the needed lift will fail. The claim that the most pressing issue today in our country is equality and that to resolve it, hard-working and most successful people should be highly taxed, while the government redistributes wealth and applies more regulation is false. To get out of our economic problem, Ghana needs to fire up its citizens, unlock their talents, enforce the rule of law, enforce individual property rights and move quickly towards a liberalised economy that supports free enterprise.
The aim for the next 40 years should not be equality of outcomes , but lifting up those below. Helping the poor can be achieved not by redistribution, but by free trade, innovation, education and for equal opportunity to work. That should be the plan. Thank you.
