As the United States continues to amass trillions in debt because of its’ adoption of a global economic system that compels it to outsource jobs and manufacturing while importing cheap foreign goods, the superpower faces a fate not unlike that of Jamaica’s. After gaining independence from Britain, Jamaica accepted development funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which required that the small nation agree to policies similar to those America has recently adopted. Such policies have destroyed the Jamaican farmer and the Jamaican economy at large, save tourism. As more Americans increasingly find it difficult to obtain long term business loans and face short term interest rates as high as 59%, America risks becoming Jamaica.
“Life and Debt,” available on Netflix streaming, is a 2001 American documentary film directed by Stephanie Black. It examines the economic and social situation in Jamaica, and specifically the impact thereon of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s globalization policies. Its starting point is the award-winning non-fiction essay A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid.
These loans were conditional on structural adjustment policies, which required Jamaica to enact harsh economic reforms, including trade liberalization, privatization, and deregulation. However, the reforms were unsuccessful and left the country with $4.6 billion dollars in debt. The film blames the World Bank and the IMF for causing this situation.
The film features a number of interviews with former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in which he critiques the system of International Financial Institution loans. He is particularly critical of required structural adjustments as an attack on the sovereignty of many former colonial nations and suggests the system is akin to imperialism or neocolonialism. Similar claims have been made popular by former Chief Economist of the World Bank (and Nobel Prize in Economics winner) Joseph Stiglitz.