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The global economy is shrinking. What that means is that there's less real wealth to go around, even as the number of people claiming on it are continuing to grow.

There are some Bermudians who are already feeling a genuine pinch from the contracting economy, especially those who were already living close to the margins. Both the IB and tourism sectors have lost jobs with no replacement work in sight, and people are struggling to make ends meet.

For Bermuda as a whole, however, the economic situation is more akin to a grossly overweight person forced to go on a diet. In essence, someone like that can miss meals but not be in any danger of starving. It doesn't mean they won't feel hungry and experience the discomfort of not getting everything they might want. Provided their intake includes the essential nutrients that aren't normally stored, they'll survive.

In general, Bermudians have been living on bloated salaries. When people say Bermuda is an expensive place to visit, it isn't just their hotel room price they're referring to. The food they buy in a grocery or restaurant; the ride they take in bus, ferry or taxi; the souvenirs they buy, whether t-shirts or jewellery; the drinks, with dinner or at the bar - every price is far above what they would pay almost anywhere else.

Every price is bloated, and at every stage people want to get a little extra so they can pay the prices being charged them, plus get a little ahead of the game.

It isn't just salaries and prices, our collective lifestyles are inflated. Our vehicles are larger than we need, we build houses larger than necessary, our appetites for food, drink, entertainment, travel are all overblown. We consume more fish than our ocean can provide. We consume more produce than our farms can deliver. Yet our very economy has only functioned by importing workers - importing more consumers. We share the global dilemma: our demand is outpacing our supply.

Bermuda as an economic organism has grown fat and, if not lazy, lethargic. While sectors of the population are working harder and our vehicles moving faster, the Island seems to be having a high-blood-pressure experience: more frenetic activity yielding less actual product. We are now resorting to bingeing on mega-cruise ships, akin to injections of food directly into the veins, because the norm of 'three meals a day' in tourist arrivals has broken down, queering our digestion in the process.

And a look at our waste stream verifies the problem. Solid waste is overwhelming our waste handling facility. Liquid wastes are polluting our inland waters. Worst of all we are wasting human lives. Every street fighter, wall sitter, drugs hustler is a resource lost to our community's development, as are their victims. We pay a double price for each youngster the public school system fails: once in the wasted talent; once more in the years of delivering social services to compensate or rehabilitate.

In short, Bermuda isn't an efficient economy, and the economic downturn is going to highlight those inefficiencies. To survive we will need to return to the core of our past success, a clean environment and a cordial populace. We will need to refocus on what's important versus what's glamorous. We will need to earn what we take, but take no more than we need. We'll need to once again respect and cherish our inheritance - this exquisitely beautiful island - and forego selling it off for the proverbial mess of pottage. And, as we think about development, we need to put development of our people first.

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