Hi Hrysippus, Andrew Allen here.
Since you seem to know so much about the benefits of wealthy foreigners living here, can you list them???
The benefits are marginal and they are, in the present setup, significantly outweighed by the costs. The out-pricing of Bahamians out of property is merely one. In other places that cater to the high net worth buyers of luxury properties, this is balanced by a hefty real property tax regime that actively takes and resells delinquent high-end properties. Here there is no such balance. I come from an upper middle class, relatively prosperous Bahamian background and could not hope to have moved out of my parental home into anything other than a steeply diminished living standard if I had left home in the first 5 years of work. The situation is worse for most. In places like Harbour Island, locals now own next to nothing except for the little ghetto area which is only unsold to foreigners because of faulty land titles.

Again, please list these advantages of having wealthy foreign residents live here. Please.

Are they big consumers? No they are not. The lower middle class supports every kind of retailing business. Just look at Carmichael road and the number of businesses it has spawned in the last 40 years (if you can remember that long). Now find a comparative level of business supported by the the consumption of residents of Lyford Cay or Old Fort Bay, where my parents live. No comparison.

Perhaps unlike you, I have been mixing with these supposedly savior foreign wealthy residents all my life. My family were members of Lyford Cay since 1973 and I count many of such people as family friends. But it is pure mythology that they somehow contribute largely to our economy. they do not (unless of course, you are a Filipino maid, which would explain your skewed understanding of the economics of this matter).

For the record, in tying my arguments about the wealthy not paying enough taxes to the question of wealthy foreign residents, you are demonstrating an embarrassing lack of understanding of the difference between the domestic and the offshore economy. Only incomes earned in The Bahamas and capital gains made here would be affected by such taxes. That has nothing to do with the offshore sector. But it means that Colina Insurance or Commonwealth Brewery (which now pay ZERO corporate income tax, unlike their equivalents elsewhere) would contribute, as would someone like me making a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Does that sound unfair to you? Honestly?

The problem in our country is the frankly ignorant level of public debate, which allows uninformed views such as the ones you expressed above to go unchallenged and find themselves written into policy by politicians who simply have no clue about the specific economics of The Bahamas.

Does it occur to you that the government is this minute flouting a 7 million tourist figure for last year (the highest in our history) and on the other hand claiming to be broke and suffer from low growth? Is it not clear that the only reason for this is NOT a dying economy but rather policies that minimize the beneficial impacts of economic activities taking place in the Bahamas, through idiocy like VAST concessions and permitting enclave ownership of our tourist economy by cruise companies? Do you not consider that the filthy and corrupt oil industry will simply be treated in the same way (except worse) and benefit even fewer people, while screwing our environment and with it our long term economic viability?? If not, you are truly a moron.

Amen

Amen

Amen

You seem to suffer from the same error as both parties, especially the FNM, who see only one side of the equation: spending. What about revenues? It is a laughably ignorant statement to say that the Bahamas "spends too much" and it displays a total lack of acquaintance to the most easily available facts.

The Bahamas spends around 19 percent of its GDP annually. That is among the lowest on earth. The regional average is 35 percent, the European average is 50 percent and the USA is 43 percent. The problem is that it only collects 17 percent of GDP!!!!

Why? Because we undertax foreign investors, totally fail to tax the rich (through graduated income taxes) and do not even bother to collect the pitifully small percentage that we tax foreign landowners in the family islands (where Bahamians are, rightfully, exempt).

Instead, we pile all of our taxes on the poor and middle class, who bear a disproportionate burden of taxes on consumption (since a larger portion of their income goes to consumption). This also slows down the economy, since the poor spend more on things that keep the economy going.

In other words, we have a regressive tax system and this idiot is retarded in thinking that we should be borrowing more than simply fixing it and doing what everyone else does: progressive taxes.

Bogart you are in a small minority of Bahamians that understand the root cause of most of our issues: regressive taxes and idiotic pro rich policies that ultimately benefit nobody.

amen

My friend if you think having 4 Prime Ministers in 46 years is a bad thing, consider this: Singapore has had 3 in 55 years, while Latin America has had on average 20. The stability of longserving governments is one reason the Bahamas and Barbados are the most developed black countries in human history in human development terms
Or maybe you would prefer to move to one of those other paradises which have had multiple leaders unable to consolidate a single development policy.

Actually, Sir Franklyn starts off on a very good point (the huge and utterly unnecessary income gap that is growing in our country) then meanders into the nonsensical proposition that reducing spending will somehow help. In fact, it is the lack of adequate spending, coupled with regressive taxes on the poor and almost nonexistent taxes on the rich that have us in the conundrum he speaks of.

Virtually all other capitalist countries (in the Caribbean, Europe, North America - you name it) spend about 40 percent of their wealth, which they obtain from taxes, on education, policing, health and all other government responsibilities.

In the Bahamas, we spend 18%. Why? Because we refuse to tax progressively, and instead pile taxes onto consumption (regressive taxes) where they disproportionately harm the poorest and keep down consumer spending.

We should be spending WAY more relative to the size of our economy. But we should be taxing WAY more - not on the poor and middle class, but on the wealthy and corporations. Commonwealth Brewery pays ZERO taxes on 100+ million in corporate profits, while high income earners (like myself) pay ZERO in income tax. If that sounds fair and sustainable to you and Sir Franklyn, then I would respectfully submit that neither of you are economists.