Just to recap, I understand that Bermudians want solutions to the continuous cycle of the capital of all crimes — which is murder most foul, as occurred in our colonial capital some weeks ago. These tragedies seem intractable. Before you continue reading, remember what I will share with you is deeply connected to what we have witnessed over the past few weeks, months and even quarter-century.

We live in a country where the nominal gross domestic product per capita is 138,935 (World Bank). It is a country in which, as previously noted, international business is responsible for producing an estimated 80 to 90 cents of every dollar earned.

History tells us there is only one remedy besides civil unrest or worse in response to the extraordinary rise in income and wealth inequality we have witnessed here.

Will we resort to austerity measures that would only make matters worse for the working poor, and the Black five, seven and 11-year-olds of today? Those Bermudians living in these low to lower middle-income households being battered by the storms of poverty and displacement?

If we allow the Tax Commission, the Bermuda business sector and the international business sector to have their way, that is exactly what will occur — along with the continued erosion of our vulnerable Black middle class.

It clearly appears already that the present commission led by Darren Johnston and Brian Holdipp — two Black neoliberals like the Premier and his government — are determined to do precisely that, aided by the routine thumbs-up from a feckless Opposition.

To the extent these murder sprees and the poverty swamp in which they occur can be reined in, the following is the only path we must take. More specifically, that is to implement a robust set of redistributive public policies, allowing us to tackle the problem at its point of origin. I do not see that coming from the Tax Commission or this government. At least not the types of redistributive public policies big enough to arrest the magnitude of this present crisis in Black Bermuda and, thus, Bermuda in general.

Rest assured, the Black community is in an ever-deepening socioeconomic crisis, which springs directly from the cumulative impact of the set of expansions in international business over the past few decades.

Once again, I hope the Governor is listening. Michael Weeks, too.

Those in international business will continue to do very well under this Tax Commission and under David Burt, while they collectively throw crumbs to the Black working poor, as the Government did recently with a raise of the minimum wage to $17.13. That increase of a “grand total” of ~73 cents is not far from where it stood only a few months ago at $16.40. Yet the living wage pledged by this government in 2017 — eight years later! — is nowhere to be found despite a pressing need for it.

“ ... Nothing ever changes ...”

Yes, we must start with what is happening in the home, as asserted by some Black politicians who otherwise lack critical thinking skills. I agree, but what is really needed is an ocean of difference from what their Sunday school sermon centred on accountability and responsibility appears to suggest. That is not the causation at work here. Far from it.

Have you not noticed that all of them, like some sort of sermon, are repeating the same mantra in the public domain? That sermon is designed to blame the victim in these households and not raise them up, with respect to the overwhelmingly Black parents living in those households. The largely economic challenges including rising levels of poverty that they face up and down Bermuda on a daily basis should not be underestimated or ignored nor held in contempt by political leaders.

In short, it’s a way for the Black political class on both sides to escape the same accountability and responsibility they falsely ascribe to the Black poor on food lines every day — or those lacking health insurance, along with their children. Clearly, they must be unaware that we live in a country where largely everyone working in international business gets their best-in-class healthcare at no cost.

But first, let’s start here ...

What are redistributive policies?

Let’s define that:

Redistributive policies are government actions and programmes designed to reduce income and wealth inequality by transferring resources from some individuals or groups to others. These policies aim to achieve greater equality of outcome and opportunity by redistributing wealth, capital and income (a primer) — Google’s AI model Genesis

That is what fairness really looks like when you get to this point.

The global minimum tax

Remember it is all connected to what is occurring in our low-income households. Some background ...

Did you know that the global minimum tax, the basis of Bermuda’s corporate income tax is the mother of all redistributive policies? Insofar as it was implemented at a global level by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development under its so-called Pillar Two framework. That requires multinational enterprises registered here and in many countries around the world that earn at least €800 million (about $750 million) terms to pay a 15 per cent corporate tax on their revenues.

Why was it pursued by the OECD member states? It was pursued and enacted because the very monster these Western European nations, and principally the US, created in the 1980s came back to haunt them.

That era four decades ago was characterised by the slashing of tax rates, the decline of progressive taxation, attacks on the labour movement, and a successful move to deregulate finance, according to Emmanuel Saez, a well-known economist. All of the above resulted in the decline in tax revenues from thousands of multinationals and wealthy individuals over the succeeding decades. This produced serious fiscal consequences, the erosion of their middle classes, more income and wealth going to the top 10 per cent of their populations — as is the case here.

Government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich has become the norm.

The remedy? As noted, it must be a targeted suite of redistributive public policies at the local level that will once again raise the standard of living by arresting its ongoing decline. If we fail once again, it will only get worse. Why that word “again”? Because, have you not noticed, there has been another significant expansion in international business post-2020 that predictably is replicating the same outcomes among our most vulnerable as previous cycles did.

A deeply unbalanced economy

The GDP per capita in Bermuda of 138,935 mocks the continued economic marginalisation of the Black working poor and its fragile middle class. This tells you, along with an estimated five thousand who have left for Britain over the past 15 years, that your economy is deeply unbalanced, unsustainable and causing significant social harm to those who deserve better — the parents of those deceased young Black men, for starters, and families island-wide raising the seven, nine and 11-year-old Black boys of today.

Bermudians deserve the right — even those without three postgraduate degrees — to earn a decent living in their own country. Those with or without high school degrees cannot be the collateral damage in the service of employers whose business model is predicated on paying poverty-level wages.

The gratuities scam

Perhaps one of the most outrageous example of how this government and the Black political elites on both sides of the aisle became the enemy of Black labour was the decision made by the Wage Commission to allow employers in hospitality to use gratuities in the calculation of basic pay.

The worst offender, though, was the former head of the Wage Commission who failed to demonstrate the requisite courage to stand and oppose this rank exploitation. This decision only placed more power in the hands of capital (the employer) at the expense of Black workers. What was once a stand-alone benefit — the gratuity scheme — that was fought for by our Black union workers in hospitality under the leadership of Bermuda Industrial Union executives such as the legendary Ottiwell Simmons is no more.

Bermudians are taking notice. In some jurisdictions such as in New York State and in Britain — under English law — the practice of employers expropriating gratuities and using them in the calculation of basic pay, as opposed to a stand-alone benefit for designated workers, is outlawed.

What it is to be done? Let’s start with these solutions

• In hospitality, I’m recommending that the gratuity scam be rescinded and that gratuities be restored once again and reserved solely for the workers in the designated occupational categories

• That the threshold that triggers lay-offs be lowered from 85 per cent to 70 per cent, and that it should be even lower in our hotel properties

• In the hospitality sector, the stand-alone minimum wage be reinstated and raised in those same occupational categories to $17 per hour.

• A living wage applicable to the non-hospitality sector of the economy should be legislated and set by the Wage Commission at no lower than the $25/hr to $27/hr range for a start, using the applicable methodology with future increases over a five-year period.

• Those companies both in international business and our local business sector, and their high-end employees, will have to start paying their fair share of taxes. The remnant of this regressive tax system in which Black Bermudians disproportionately bore the greatest burden must be dismantled. Even a modest income tax, and taxes on income and capital gains, for example, could go a long way in addressing many of our societal ills — healthcare being but one.

This is what the right anti income and wealth inequality public policies should look like.

Additionally, we need a significant investment in clean energy, which means no liquefied natural gas. It is too expensive and poses too many risks, including safety, for a geographically small and relatively isolated island such as Bermuda. We need to make a big investment in renewables like China has and as a growing numbers of nations are doing. Today, the countries that will win the future are those that can sharply reduce their energy costs. Time is not our friend.

Bermuda’s cost of electricity is one of the most expensive globally per kilowatt-hour. That will be the key competitive and comparative advantage in economies across the globe as we move into the third decade of this century.

Kim Smith, of Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, summed it up brilliantly in a recent op-ed:

“LNG is not a bridge to the future; it is a roadblock…”

The renewable future will create a path to a new economy characterised by more diversification, not less. This would open high-end opportunities for our largely marginalised young Black men in the areas of technical education and training, and employment opportunities in the various renewable industries — offshore wind, offshore cellular, wave action and related technologies.

In the next instalment, I will focus on healthcare and housing. Both should be a right, not a privilege. Let’s begin to disincentivise the illegal drug business as a viable career path for our young Black men. How do we do that? It begins in large part by changing our labour market and raising tax revenue to attack Black poverty as if we mean it.

Fix this along with other reforms and perhaps we can even reverse-engineer the migration of a significant number of the estimated 5,000 to 6,000 mostly Black emigrants back to their island home.

“…Nothing ever changes...”

That was the plaintive lament by mother Nicole Furbert Fox, a friend of mine and former constituent. Her indictment of the Black political elites took place at a recent forum held at Christ Church Devonshire on the same topic. She has lost her son and a stepson, who were both murdered over the past decade. She has been a strong, unrelenting fighter and advocate for our young Black men throughout this period. As have been countless mothers just like her. I just want to let her know that she and her husband’s loss was Bermuda’s loss, too.

• Rolfe Commissiong was the independent candidate for Pembroke Central (Constituency 17) in the 2025 General Election