A few observations. I don't see how this bill is paying off campaign donors. This bill is specifically designed to diversify the economy. That is the bottom line.

Secondly, the overarching duty of the government, is to lead and guide the country and do what is best for the country. Taking care of specific groups of people is what the PLP did. Sometimes what is good for the country, particularly for the ambiguous, indefinable future is at odds with the status quo and subjective interests of a group of people in the country. Remedial action is often painful and fraught with danger to some folks. But it has to be done.

The shrinking middle class is by no means a Bahamian phenomenon. It is present everywhere. The only antidote is income diversity and this is what the bill is all about.

We can't train Bahamians in the knowledge industry unless we have knowledge industries. You can train all that you want, but if there is no business for them here, it is all in vain.

I see huge suffering for most of the people in the Bahamas, but it will come either way. The only difference is that with the proposed legislation, there is at least a chance of economic diversification and redemption. Without it, we might as well all kiss our ass goodbye now.

Fweddie comes out of his closet to attack people, but then again, he never comes out of the closet. This is fair comment on public politicians.

I am already gone in terms of employment. I am back here on holidays for Christmas, and to kick out the renters outta the condo and clean it out.

Ironically, I now pay income tax, and the tax authorities een happy with my bank account in a tax haven with no automatic information exchange, so I guess my 18 year old bank account gets closed too.

In 2009 I did a study using Bayesian inference on the number of illegals or undocumented on New Providence. It was in the order of 70,000 back then, plus or minus 10%.

But that is not an impediment to development or economic diversification. The impediment to economic development is mindset.

What are we afraid of? If we are highly skilled Bahamians, doing best-of-breed work, then we can out-compete foreigners. If we will lose our jobs because foreigners do it better, faster, cheaper or higher quality, then we deserve to lose our jobs. The lack of productivity retards the entire country.

Look, I pretty much "lost" my job because of the contraction in the financial services industry -- specifically wealth management. The flight of capital was horrible. One of my top revenue-producing clients, a British pound billionaire, decided to leave. He called it a "tropical shiite hole". He actually decided that he was going to pay income tax rather than live here. On top of the small diminished life (food stores with sub-standard stock -Supervalue, no culture, limited arts, movies censored by the BCC, no decent shopping, impossible to take his fancy car for a decent spin unless it was the few miles toward Jaws Beach past Lifeless Cay, just generally nothing to do, no football teams to watch), on top of all of that, our financial services infrastructure sucked -- week to clear a cheque, etc.

If we had a bunch of high earners here because of tax structures and climate, then all of the stuff that the HNWI's want that adds up to quality of life, would start to appear, and it would benefit all Bahamians.

And when I decided to do a career switch, I got a work permit and residency status within ten days when my employer applied for it. Nobody was afraid that I would take someone else's job when I arrived.

We have to stop our parochial, Mickey Mouse thinking and take a world view. We can't operate in a vacuum. The US and Canada built their greatness on immigrants. They bring new skills and a fire in the belly to succeed. And when they succeed, we all succeed.

We need a miracle to save us. Unfortunately the only miracle that Bahamian Jesus can do, is make a man deaf, dumb, blind and stupid.

Cayman Enterprise -- pay your $12,000, give them a list of people who need work permits, they let you into the country with all your stuff without duty, and the work permits are ready in 5 days. That's all it takes - $12,000. And that is why they are eating our lunch.

When I see idjits arguing about more than $250,000 or we can't do it in 14 days, it makes me want to cry. Why are we so fooking backwards in every way ??????????? Why are we so narrow-minded and stupid?

The reason that foreigners ate our lunch in previous times, is because we asked for bribes and let them know that we are a country for sale, and we Bahamians didn't give a shiite about. Want our beaches ? Give me a bribe and take them. Want our hilltops? Give me a bribe and take them. Want workers? Bahamians een good fer anyting 'cept carrying bags and washin' floors. We like dem kinds of work.

A programmer makes three times the salary of a maid or cashier. A technical architect makes 10 times the salary of a maid, a taxi driver or a bellman. An analyst, a database administrator, a mobile web app developer, a network technician -- they all make multiples of the average Bahamian wage. And we let these businesses in and we will get them.

And no Pinder is not intelligent if he can't understand this. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the billionaire investor who wrote the Black Swan, is trying to get the Nobel Prize for Economics rescinded, because it is not a real science. Economists are only right when they are right, and when they are wrong, it causes societal chaos.

Oh fer fook's sakes again. Here we have a protectionist pseudo-science economist blathering stupidities. Just one tech success can fix the employment situation of the Bahamas. Rolling the dice doesn't cost anything and there is only upside to rejuvenating the economy.

When will these d*ckwads understand, that it isn't about FDI or Foreign Direct Investment? We have had generations of FDI and where has it gotten us? It is about job creation, creation of new sectors of the economy and diversification of the economy. Stupid Bahamians like this are part of the problem and not of the solution.

We are at a unique juncture in history, where brainpower alone, with virtually no other resources can revitalise the economy. These troglodytes (to save you looking it up -- fooking dinosaurs) don't know their rectums from a hole in the ground, even though both entities reflect their brain power and ability to think to advance the Bahamas.

We should throw the doors wide open for free, and let them help save us. We een doing too good of a job ourselves.

That's a rather strong way of looking at it, but I think that you are right. Put technology into the mix, and there will be widespread unemployment. There are already hotels that are completely manned by robots. There are also banks that are completely robotic. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/…

On my last visit to Canada, I gassed up the rental car at a completely autonomous gas station -- no people at all.

If you have a strong economy, like the Nordic countries, they are all ready talking about a basic minimum wage for people whether you work or not. However, you have to have the economic output to sustain this, and we do not.

Hard times ahead unless this government can pull out all of the stops to re-define the economy of the Bahamas. It seems that the government has the right ideas, but is unable to execute -- either in a timely fashion, or at all.

The IADB has lent the Bahamas money to apply technology to the solution. Hopefully, the government will get off its ass, hire the right people instead of cronies, and get something done. The tools and means are there. Let us see if there is the will.

Oh fer fook's sakes. Someone lend Minnis some balls to tell his wife to sit small.

Good advice. The good news for Bahamians, is that if you start using crypto-currency, you won't have to pay the Central Bank bulls*t of their cut everytime you do a transaction. And it is a way to get American dollars without paying a premium on it. This crypto stuff will empower Bahamians.