Here is how you can avoid voting for a poorer Jersey - Jersey Evening Post
by Voices · Jersey Evening PostPosted inVoices
Here is how you can avoid voting for a poorer Jersey
by Voices 4 June 20264 June 2026
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By Douglas Kruger
NOT a penny. That’s how much wealth a government can create. Any government, anywhere. They simply don’t do that, nor was it ever the point.
Before coming to Jersey, I became deeply fascinated by the topic of wealth and poverty.
What raises some people up from destitution? What keeps others down? Why do cycles of poverty persist in some nations, while in others entire population groups experience a meteoric rise to previously unseen levels of wealth?
I wrote two books on the topic, and both became bestsellers in my nation. One is called Poverty Proof, the other: Is Your Thinking Keeping You Poor?
Here’s how it pertains to Jersey right now, and it has everything to do with governments.
Specifically, which government we choose in the next few weeks.
A good government can do several things to make life better. Maintain law and order.
Uphold contracts. Provide and maintain excellent infrastructure, so that life works for its people. The best ones do it with a minimum of fingers in the biscuit tin.
But when it comes to generating new wealth, a government’s best contribution is to “not be a problem”.
Our current cost of living is eye-watering, and the next government can easily make it worse. Here is what we don’t need. New taxes. Lower wages. Costlier groceries. More businesses closing shop and taking wealth and job opportunities off the Island.
Where are the traps? The biggest poverty-creator hides behind language. Empathetic language in particular.
Incentivised by a desire for votes, politicians regularly grandstand about introducing “free” things. There is no such thing. The correct term is “taxpayer-funded”. That’s because everything – everything! – is taxpayer-funded, and nothing whatsoever is paid for by the government. Governments do not have their own wealth, cannot create any and can only raise expenses all around by using yours. That’s what they’ve been doing, for a long time now.
And so, the interesting question is not how a government can help the prosperity of Jersey but rather: Where does prosperity come from in the first place?
The answer’s simple, but clouded by euphemistic language.
Wealth comes from work. Business. Trade and deals and employment.
If you care to get technical, all wealth generates at the point of sale, and if no sale takes place, zero wealth is generated, ever. But for our purposes, the catch-all answer is “work”.
Doing and making and trading creates prosperity, and nothing else does. The rest is showmanship for the purposes of power.
If you work, or own a business, in Jersey, it matters greatly that you vote this year, because the “free stuff” narrative has been prevailing. Consequently, taxes are growing, costs are increasing, government is expanding and everything is becoming more expensive.
Opportunity shrinks in tandem. As it does, businesses die and people become poorer. Most especially, the people who don’t understand this dynamic, and keep voting for “more free stuff”. They suffer the worst.
If you are in business of any sort, employed or as an owner, you are among those who understand this simple truth: all prosperity for Jersey is generated exclusively by what you do. The more business prospers, and the more “work” is enabled, the better our island does, and that applies to finance, tourism, farming, being a DJ over the weekends or selling hotdogs – everything.
The competing belief system is dying worldwide, thank goodness. Witness the rise from poverty of Argentina, the economic rebirth in America, Britain’s increasingly vocal rejection of its current commie-leaning government in favour of those promising to free up everything and reward hard work.
But it still has its zealots here. Its ideology poses as kindness. Its con is to extract large amounts in taxation, then give small amounts back and condescend to expect your gratitude. It’s a grift. It doesn’t work, has never worked and consistently makes nations poorer.
The worst-case scenario in recent history is Venezuela, which tried this socialist “kindness” and fell from being the most prosperous nation in South America to starvation levels, pretty much overnight. Even wealthy Scandinavian nations who implemented parts of this ideology instantly fell from extreme wealth to levels way below. They began to prosper again only in direct relation to their repealing of these bad ideas.
For us in the pro-business camp, herein lies our current opportunity. Jersey is notorious for its voter apathy. A handful of people who could be bothered to show up and vote can entirely transform the landscape by their efforts.
So do it. Our local Soviet block mobilises religiously, and only just scrapes through. If the pro-productivity people step up in any numbers whatsoever, our Soviet era will be entirely over. Good. Consign it to the dung-heap of history, and make this island hum.
If you work, own a business, are part of the business community responsible for the prosperity of Jersey, this is a big moment. You can swing the entire thing.
Personally, I like the Value Jersey people. I’m voting for them at every level of governance.
They speak about repealing oppressive regulation, lowering tax, helping honest people to work rather than finding ways to shut them down. In every way, they speak the language of genuine prosperity for Jersey.
They aren’t a political party. Rather, they are independents, advised by a thinktank. The thinktank has its principles correct. They align with everything I have studied and written about concerning wealth and poverty. What they preach absolutely works – if they gain the authority to implement it.
Most importantly, they aren’t pulling that sinister trick: “Vote for us for free stuff.” That, as we know from repeated instances in global history, is a direct vote for increased poverty.
See you at the ballots. And see you in a more prosperous Jersey thereafter.
Douglas Kruger is a global speaker and bestselling business author. Meet him at douglaskruger.com
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