Cup Match. Bermuda Day. Events such as these bring Bermudians and all residents together in the spirit of all that is great about Bermuda. Tradition, culture, friendly competition. Black/white, rich/poor, management/union, Bermudian/expat; it doesn’t seem to matter. During celebratory events such as these, we are all one family.

Bermuda’s future. Jobs, the economy, education, immigration. Just imagine what progress we could make in this country if we engaged each other with the respect we show during Cup Match and Bermuda Day.

Why is this? Why is it that as a country we have such a hard time having honest and respectful discussions about issues that we may not all agree on? I am concerned about Bermuda’s economic future. Are things getting better? Overall, gross domestic product statistics say they are. And I believe that they are.

But there are far too many Bermudians who are feeling there has been negligible or no improvement. And it is my belief that this may go on for a long time for far too many Bermudians. And I’m concerned; very concerned.

To remind ourselves of the enormity of Bermuda’s economic challenge, our deficit (how much more the Government is spending in the present year than receiving), is approximately $220 million. Our debt (how much the Government owes to others today, net of what others owe us), is approximately $2.2 billion.

What is not being adequately discussed in our community is Bermuda’s game plan: to discuss when Bermuda should expect to “receive” more money than it “pays” in a year. And once that begins to happen, how can we make even a dent in the $2.2 billion that the Government owes?

And what happens if, God forbid, Bermuda cannot pay back this $2.2 billion? What does that look like?

If a homeowner cannot pay back a mortgage, they risk losing the ownership and enjoyment of their house. But what happens if a country cannot pay its bills? Why aren’t we having this discussion? In my view, if we did, we would begin to take our debt problem much more seriously.

Without more people being attracted to Bermuda to live and work, I don’t understand how we will begin to receive more than we pay. We have our collective heads in the sand if we think that this problem will go away on its own. It will not. Bermuda needs a game plan. The America’s Cup will certainly help. Is it the game changer? Not likely. Without more people living and working in Bermuda, the only recourse will be to increase taxes on those existing businesses and individuals who remain.

The problem, however, is that businesses that cannot relocate to other jurisdictions — ie, local retail and restaurants — cannot afford higher taxes. Those businesses that can relocate elsewhere — ie, international businesses — may look to relocate elsewhere. The only certainty to increasing the tax burden to existing businesses to solve our debt problem is that Bermudian jobs will be lost.

Every sports team and business needs a plan to succeed. Bermuda lost between 5,000 and 8,000 jobs between 2009 and 2014. What we all need to know is how many of these 5,000 to 8,000 lost jobs we need to replace to start to be able to pay back the country’s enormous debt burden. Is it 2,000 ... 4,000?

Whatever the figure is, let’s establish it and discuss what the plan is to attract these jobs. And then we need to measure progress and see how successful we are at attracting these jobs.

We need to have these critical yet perhaps controversial conversations. We need to have these conversations in Chamber of Commerce forums; we need to have them in church forums.

People appear to me to be fearful of having these discussions. What scares me much more is not having these discussions.

We are not all going to agree on the strategy and execution of the game plan, but if we do not start to have these conversations and at least agree that a game plan is required, quo fata ferunt may result.

And we will not necessarily like where fate carries us.

• John Wight is the president of the Chamber of Commerce