“ Sione I heard you. This is what I learned.
President Regan said once, if I ask one single economic question to a room of 300 economists, I will get 300 different answers. How the hell can that be? You’re just one of the economists. I don’t claim to be one, but I am not ignorant as the half-baked faikava buddy as you claimed. BTW, I do not drink kava Tonga. I drink the Fijian kava. You may not aware, it has great natural aphrodisiac effects. Try it sometime. You will be surprised. Of course, it won’t work if the engine does not run in the first place. Forget Vaiola, they’re not equip to overhaul the motor. They did not help the PM, did they?
I am not denying the remittance forces and its’ effect, but I still define welfare as assistance you receive for doing absolutely nothing. Some economists excluded remittance because they do not represent goods and services produce in the economy. As you pointed out GDP is the “country’s economic output” so where the remittance fit in as an input? If you talk about balance of payment [BOP]then I might give you leeway because current account is use in the national output calculation. Fortunately, I found the BOP [2006 – 2017] and Tonga included in that data the capital account with some components of the current account (goods & service). However, absolutely missing from it is the current transfer (remittance). It appears Tonga is listening to me. For once, I should give Tonga credit rather than bashing them.
My belief was, agriculture is the backbone of the economy. You said its’ remittance. I am fine with that. You are entitled to your opinion. But I hope you stop reading Krugman books and stop having lunches with the Ofama economists. We all know very well how that economy turned out, but you will not know that if you do not have a 401k.
If you disagree with my thesis, there are only two things you can do. First, tell me my data are fake. You can’t do that because I got the data from the mouth of the horse, the GofT. Second, explain why my analysis is wrong. You did not do either. Instead you call out my ignorance. Fortunately, you aren’t the first nor the last. From my experiences, I learned, when I pointed out the facts and debating the issues, the Tongan ALWAYS defaulted to name calling or rambling about something that has nothing to do with the topic. You are no different.
“You cannot "move money around" in economics as you wish.” So, why I can’t move the $$ around in the economy as you claimed. Isn’t remittance money movement?
I will explain how to finance my proposal as you asked. I will make it simple. Currently the GofT allocate $12 TOP to run the radio station, A3Z. Here I am coming as the PM with my proposal; I will sell the radio station to my neighbor for $15.07. Talking about fkponepone. Koe nifi e kae nafa e. At the meantime, the GofT still collecting $12 tukuhau. Now, what I am going to do with the $12? So, listen carefully, ask question if you do not understand. I will take the $12 plus the $15.07 and freely give it to the farmers to grow their crops. Of course, I will put six pa’anga in my pocket for personal use. For heaven sake, it’s the farmer’s money in the first place. All I am doing is giving back the farmers their $$. My nickname is Robin Hood.
Just happen to run into the cut and paste below from the October 2017 Tonga Household Income & Expenditure report. Another reason why I claimed, agriculture is the backbone of the Tonga economy. I am not going to interpret the data since I can’t do that for your satisfaction. Go at it.
“At a national level, the highest proportion of total income from salaries and wages – by industry – is derived from the Agriculture, forestry and fishing industry (17 percent of wages and salaries income), followed by Public administration (16 percent), Education (14 percent), Construction (9 percent) and Human health and social work activities (7 percent).
Remittances alone account for 19 percent of total HH income. Remittances make up the large majority (95 percent) of income within the remittances and gifts category.
Overall, the main items contributing to total HH income are wages and salaries (42 percent), remittances (19 percent), imputed rents (12 percent), agricultural income (6 percent) business income (5 percent). The significance of subsistence income and handicrafts income is high in the outer islands of Tonga.” ”