Jamaica has tremendous potential. We have excelled in various spheres of life - sports, music, tourism - but have never been able to translate this success to economic prosperity. Lately, I have been asking myself this question, "Why are we still struggling economically?" These are my thoughts on the matter:

1. We are structured for poverty: Jamaica always existed as a plantation economy. The social and economic structures were designed to facilitate a few people becoming wealthy while the vast majority were intended to stay poor and provide cheap labour. Slavery has been abolished but the social structure is much the same and all institutions - church, school and government - still function to maintain this arrangement.

2. Limited opportunity: Every day thousands of qualified and unqualified young people go seeking after limited jobs. The plantation system is so designed that a considerable number of young people (especially young males) are not able to find gainful employment. They are locked out of society's opportunity structure. This leaves them hopeless, helpless and hapless.

3. Failure of the education system: In 1635, the planters in Barbados decided that they did not want an illiterate labouring population. They established schools on their plantations to teach the negroes. Jamaica only introduced universal elementary education for the negroes in 1835. The system was designed to produce an educated elite with the vast majority of our people at the bottom with little education.

The current distinction between traditional and non-traditional schools was designed to maintain an education system that produces a limited number of well-educated people and a pool of cheap labourers such as helpers, cleaners and gardeners. One can look at students going to school in the mornings and predict with some degree of accuracy their destiny based on their uniforms and demeanour.

The point I am making is that our education system has failed to adequately educate the majority of our people to become gainfully employed in the labour force and to be able to secure an income that will maintain an acceptable standard of living.

4. Attitude towards money: The aphorism, 'the love of money is the root of all evil' is widely believed by Jamaicans. Our parents drill this into our heads. As a people, we have ambivalent attitudes towards money. We don't see money as an instrument of reward and as an instrument which we should use to purchase goods and services. Nothing is wrong with money that is honestly earned.

The government bureaucracy is so designed to discourage us from making money. Government's red tape does not facilitate investment and the system is so designed to discourage the payment of taxes and the collection of money to run the country.

5. Champagne taste on beer pocket: As a society, we have developed high standards and very exquisite taste. This has caused many of us to live far above our means and this attitude is perpetuated by successive governments. This country spends far more than it earns and we have become one of the most indebted countries in the world. As a people, we simply have not fully grasped this truth.

If this country is to move forward and achieve economic development, we must have a complete change in mindset at the levels of the individual, institutions and government.

Dr Wendel Abel is a consultant psychiatrist and head, Section of Psychiatry, Dept Of Community Health and Psychiatry, University of the West Indies; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.