Tell me that there is not a sea worm in your brain. I think that there is, but prove me wrong.

Another blow -- NAD the airport development company's debt was downgraded. Probably based on declining revenues and declining tourism. Another kick to the gonads for the Bahamas.

Now you are showing your PLP predilection for prevaricating. That's just like saying "Is it possible that a sea worm got into Tal's brain while he/she was eating a bad piece of conch from Uncle Tellis' Conch Stall?"

My goodness, the muscles on that woman are scary.

I once had a chicken leg from Bamboo Shack that looked like that shoulder.

Let's look at this soberly. There is no "official" owner. The government is propping up a Chinese company. The Chinese company is targeting a business rate that is not viable. What is wrong with this picture, starting at the ownership level? Anyway any reasonable person looks at this is, does not make sense. We live in a dying Clockwork Orange.

I am beginning to like you again. The average hotel occupancy rate in the Caribbean is about 66%.

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2017…

Jumping Jehoshaphat -- another intelligent, cogent point! Concur.

Wow !! I wish that the Tribune would dig up Ortland's letter from last year supporting Brave. Poor Ortland, he blew his wad and saw his pay cheque disappear when the PLP lost, and now he turns on them and on the one that he so vehemently supported. Typical PLP.

Hilarious! LOL !

Interesting points of view here.

However, as an ex-wealth manager, I can categorically state that the rich class is changing as fast as the middle classes and poorer classes. I've seen concentrated wealth dissipated by death and inheritance, and yes the heirs are wealthy by any standard, they do not have the same economic clout and influence that the wealth accumulators had. The old adage is true: The first generation makes it, the second generation spends it and the third generation blows it. Statistics show that only about 5% of wealthy families’ assets were inherited. The vast majority – approximately 70% – was created in the current generation via business ownership. The remaining 25% of wealth was the result of high-income occupations, such as doctors, attorneys etc. The old rich class (the Firestones, the steel magnates etc) are dismayed at the much larger wealth of the new billionaires.

The current crop of tech billionaires made it themselves -- Musk, Zuckerberg, Thiel -- sure some of them came from high income families, but the wealth was all generated in this generation through business. This shows you the importance of business, and our ease of doing business treats business people poorly. It is totally asinine to pay for a business licence based on expected revenue. It is retrogressive and anti-business. A business licence should cost the same for everyone. That is how wealth is created.

And as for the shrinking middle class -- we are regressing away from the Industrial Revolution paradigm that created the middle class. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, in Britain for example, there was the wealthy elite and the masses. The American Exceptionalism was founded on everyone being an entrepreneur and at the time of the Revolution, the economy was fairly vibrant in the 13 colonies and hence the taxes levied on them. The entire world moves in cycles, and we will see the middle class shrink by a heck of a lot. We will see three classes of peoples -- the poor, the entrepreneurs and uber wealthy with just a smattering of middle class.

If want any hope for this country, we had better fix the business environment. It is pretty much the only resource that we can develop for our salvation as a nation. Fostering business is more important than levying tax on it.