Director of Education Marcellus Taylor said recently that Bahamian business owners do not take big risks because The Bahamas has no social safety nets in place.

“Like in America, for instance, you can go bankrupt. When you go bankrupt, there’s a process for that. You’re exempted from certain things, but you also can’t do certain things. But there’s a process to deal with you once you go bankrupt,” Mr. Taylor said, while appearing as a guest on Love 97’s radio talk show Jones and Co. 

“Also, people in the United States engage in certain businesses and get a lot of assistance here and there – tax exemptions, this thing, and the next thing. You also have people who work in the United States on certain jobs like construction workers in the New York area that get two months’ worth of salary just because construction doesn’t really go on that much.”

Mr. Taylor insisted that when people know they have the support of others, they would be able to take more of a risk, than compared to having no way to recover.

“Compound that with a society where if I fail, everybody knows me. So, I can’t escape that. If I turn here, you’re looking at me and laughing at me. There’s a lot of envy for persons who dare to take a chance,” he said.

“So, this social component is one we can’t overlook. People respond to the society that they are in and if people ridicule me, I would prefer to be safe and fit into my society than to go out there on a limb and if I crash everybody ridicules me.”

He added that this is why education is imperative for national development, as persons would get a better understanding of what a society requires to move forward and how a government should design programs for that society.