Well the first would be reducing the cost of living by lowering tariffs for all member countries meaning clothes and cars for example will be cheaper. Not only will they be cheaper because of lower custom duties rates; but lets say for example we previously bought from the U.S. and the U.S. bought from South Korea, we can essentially cut out the U.S. and buy directly from South Korea cutting out the middle man.

The next would be increased growth because now investors know that they may invest in The Bahamas with less government interference. Foreign direct investment is key to The Bahamas maintaining the 1:1 value with the U.S. dollar.

An argument against joining would be that joining kills Bahamian businesses but it also increases lobbying. For example because there is no international competition, persons like Mr. Roberts may threaten to fire 500 employees because they don't like VAT.

A next benefit would be allowing Bahamian to export to nations that it currently are unable to because they are not a member.

There are a few others which I may list with more time if those above do not satisfy you. Nevertheless, we must recognize that not joining means that countries impose external tariffs on us(sending goods to their countries has a higher custom duty rate for us than for members of WTO, making our goods more expensive and less attractive). In addition, we may not what is good brands in the UK currently but who is to say we can't learn as we did with The U.S.?

One benefit is more competition in the goods imported leading to increased quality and lower prices. In addition, most of the disadvantages that we would experience with joining WTO; we already experience. Might as well join and get some of the advantages.

Logical explanation of why Bahamians are not allowed to gamble in foreign owned casinos, is primarily because the Government and the Central Bank of The Bahamas fear that the casinos will do the same things that the banks do; which is send money out of the country which is a threat to our currency being valued 1:1 with the USD. I am under the assumption that this is true because Bahamian gambles their life savings away and instead of the money gambled away staying in the country, it leaves the country not helping us.

Nonetheless, neither government thinks logically, it probably because our nationality isn't good enough and for some of us our shade is a little too dark!

I say we accept Mr. Rollins plan!Principally because we know we won't be paying no $200 but after the legislation is passed for us to gamble; we all would be very happy! Bahamians don't pay no fees or taxes except bank fees.

I just hope Mr. Cash pays his property tax bill. I also hope that those who are required and able to pay are also paying theirs; else there should be no complaints about Mr. Lightbourne from those persons.

Call the hotel and see if they have reservations for said person. In addition, with all the crime going on; a "smart" tourist wouldn't even venture off that hotel property if they even came.

One may simply google, the effectiveness of CCTV on reducing crime. Criminals are being caught with or without CCTV but it is no use putting in thousands or millions of dollars into technology that when you catch these criminals they are back out on bail. I have to agree somewhat with Oracle is saying; we must fix the penal code to extend sentence years, reduce likelihood on bail to zero, and let criminals pay for the increase cost through labour in primarily some sort of manufacturing industry. Probably something like the textile industry; that of course if we don't have Human Rights Activists down our throats.

VAT is not a tax that the Bahamian government is creating from scratch. There are several countries in the world that already have VAT. Stop waiting on the government, read up on the fundamentals of VAT yourself and see experiences of the VAT yourself because there will always be a sense of bias from the Government and the opposition.

The government is not only increasing taxes but supposedly reducing expenditure. I swear some Bahamian citizens act like they depend on government to do everything. We might as well become a socialist country.