Dear Editor,

When Cash Plus folded I had no doubt that within a decade or so a significant number of Jamaicans would buy into another such scheme.

Well, I was not exactly right, but 15 years later we are learning that over 50,000 Jamaicans are alleging that they have lost millions of dollars invested in Warner Media Jamaica Limited, which crumbled in just about a year.

I will not berate those who lost their money, but I will speak of what I perceive to be the mindset of a large number of Jamaicans.

There is a large number of Jamaicans who do not adopt the lifestyle of educated people. They don’t read a newspaper. They might not even listen to or watch the news. They get their news from social media. They are anti-establishment, anti-”big man”, anti-orthodoxy. In the year of the Stocks and Securities Limited debacle, people were willing to fork out thousands, even millions of dollars in a get-rich-quick scheme? These people have obviously not internalised the principle: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food…” (Genesis 3:19) No amount of financial education is going to change the minds of the bulk of these people.

To be honest, I had never heard of this new scheme. I would really like to know which parishes were most affected.

They wouldn’t invest in the stock market. I mean, if you don’t want to invest in the main market stocks, there are many junior market stocks run by people who had an idea, gathered up their savings, borrowed from friends and the bank, and started a company, small at first and then they expanded. FosRich is a prime example. You could buy into one of these companies. When you buy shares in a Jamaican company you are helping the country by supporting an organisation to expand and employ more people.

The financial illiteracy of these people cries out to high heaven. They don’t know how a country is run. They don’t understand or care to understand how an economy works. I even question their loyalty to this country. They think they can get something for nothing? Instead of investing in a Jamaican company, they prefer to trust the word of a “big man” abroad who has no interest in this country.

I believe that there are many people who naively believe that Cash Plus could have succeeded had not the Government and banks taken certain steps, so they are anxious to hop on to any new scheme. It is mind-boggling. You can’t build a country with this mindset.

What hurt me most is that a man diverted over $1 million from agricultural endeavours to this scheme. He didn’t even think to put between 25 per cent and 33 per cent of the sum in this risky venture. He put everything. Surely farming is less risky.

Don’t people want cabbage, string beans, and Irish potatoes to eat? Is that too much effort? If 50-year-olds can act so injudiciously, God help this country!

The irony of the matter is that they would now like to recoup even a portion of their money. And who do they expect to assist them? Is it the agencies that they didn’t trust in the first place?

Norman W M Thompson

norms74160@gmail.com