I quite like philosophy. Every day that you are above ground is one that challenges or inspires some, hopefully new, outlook on life. Over time, I’ve found some philosophies to be rather compelling, especially when presented as a story. Just two Saturdays ago, a friend made light of my naivety regarding what I thought was a new boldness among our younger people and their very public acts of smoking marijuana. I always thought it to be something done at fetes, indoors, or on the blocks. We happened to be at Oistins Fish Market, and the dolphin definitely had a 'herbier' taste than I'd been accustomed to over the years. It was that prevalent. She mentioned that she had never known a time when marijuana wasn’t that openly consumed. I thought then that we grew up in similar environments, so how could I have been that blind to what was always happening in front of me?
The introspection that followed led me to revisit the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Andersen. You may remember that vanity in his attire eventually led to the protagonist’s embarrassingly nude stroll through his streets. The downside to those actions included the loss of admiration and respect among his subjects. You’d think that he would wear what was obvious and real to him, but mischievous advice and an inflated sense of 'reality' determined otherwise.
I strongly believe that our government’s approach to the most recent crime wave in Barbados is right out of the pages of this book, especially in the final act. Not for any 'tinted' point of view, nor for lack of trying, really! The economist in me believes that this solution is ill-applied, even though it’s a necessary policy. The man in me abhors people having to spend more money than initially budgeted because of loosely defined older legislation.
What concerns me, generally, is the one-size-fits-all rebuke of 3D printing. I agree that there is sufficient evidence revealing that technology is being used to print parts of guns that have been seized by the Barbados Police Service. However, the unclear, blanket, and misaligned intent to 'license' the importation of 3D printers can severely shortchange the inevitable democratisation of manufacturing and national development in Barbados in the medium to long term.
There's a part of me that wishes to speak to the technical reasons why this is so. I could easily point out that the signalled intent of the policy disregards that the selection of filament is more integral to the ability to print parts for guns. Essentially, materials such as PLA, PETG, and ASA filament lack the durability for usable assault weaponry. It’s better to spend energy on creating the framework for licensing the imports of carbon fibre filament and other compounds. Hopefully, Steven Williams, the local IT advocate and part-time social justice warrior, advises the government on its 'evening wear’.
I choose to focus on the economic impacts. The democratisation of manufacturing presents significant pros and cons. The very act of allowing individuals or smaller businesses to produce what they need is challenging to the current disposition: significant investment is needed to manufacture materials through the benefit of economies of scale. An economy of scale is simply the decrease in unit cost of items gained from the ability to produce greater units of the same product over time and with investment. This is why garment factories are currently able to produce bigger volumes of goods at a smaller per-unit cost than, say, the village seamstress. Try as she may to lower costs, she will lack the investment and ability to compete on time and price. She might compete with quality.
In the Barbados and CARICOM context, the technology has the ability to transform lagging manufacturing industries if they choose to specialise where they have a competitive advantage. More realistically, however, the fact is that some form of manufacturing will eventually be embedded into other industries, leading to cheaper inventory management and cost savings in some areas (e.g., for plant buildout and energy usage). So, assuming that the availability of filament, licensed or otherwise, is not a factor, then businesses could just print replacement parts for machines based on specifications that they source through a quality-assured process. They could also produce larger product ranges with less capital.
I tend to think that people forget that Barbados is a remote island, lying quite far from major manufacturing hubs. It takes significant time for imports to arrive here by air or sea. Worse yet is that the inventory management model that is popularly known to be the most affordable (Just-In-Time) cannot work in Barbados for these very reasons. It means that the consumer pays for a downed machine in a local factory, as businesses are more likely to pass on that cost of repair, unlike in larger markets. This inefficiency in logistics leads to scarcity of services and products which, quite obviously, goes hand in hand with inflation.
3D printing technology, therefore, has compelling use cases given the issues I outlined. For those worried about larger companies stalling its progress, I can assure you that most affected by the localisation of their parts will eventually find it more profitable to rent designs and their licences to printers. There is ample research into the benefits to be explored by developing economies such as ours. Pertinently, Richard A. D’Aveni (2019) outlined the greatest upside of promoting an industrial 3D printing industry in developing countries. The technology provides a fiscally cheaper and more affordable way to encourage import substitution, reducing public debt over time while saving foreign exchange. Imagine what this technology can do, in part, for our foreign reserves in the long run.
The government’s intended approach can lead to similar bottlenecks to those created by the licensing regime for our local FPV drone industry. This is still an immense worry. It is as though the sole positive track record in terms of innovative technology is in the area of personal computing. The economy could not have sustained its growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s if not for the supportive tax and educational reform policies meant to drive widespread use of computers on the island. I’m afraid that if its present logic had been applied to computing then, we’d hear of some link between the importation of computers and Barbadian cyber-terrorists. I am sure there are a few, but that clearly doesn’t apply to everyone, does it?
It seems as though, historically, some licensing resources (inspectorates; amenable legislation; interoperability with international law and practice; and production and storage facilities) tend to lag the necessary pace of development. Other examples include those for the medicinal cannabis industry and aviation. I understand that things take time, but licensing regimes for small open economies should never be a leading roadblock to their development. And this seems to be the case and, therefore, is an extremely regressive philosophy. I, for one, would prefer to see our government strolling down Broad Street in some 3D-printed clothes.