by Jerome Pinder
On Thursday August 26th, The Tribune published an article where MP Fred Mitchell was calling on Government to intervene and protect the welfare of City Markets Employees.
Read the entire article here.
In the article he was concerned regarding the welfare of 700 workers that are employed at City Markets, including some of his constituents that are employed with the food chain. He goes on to comment about low levels of inventory, failing equipment, etc…….
So we have a Government MP going on record, hinting at the financial failure of City Markets. Is he putting fear in the employees? Is the company doomed? Does the MP have the correct information to make such comments?
What is more alarming, whether City Markets is in financial trouble or not, is that the MP wants the Government through the Department of Labour to intervene and protect the workers. So we have to ask ourselves some very serious questions:
– Is it the role of Government and our MPs to interfere with private enterprise?
– Is it the role of Government and ultimately the Tax Payer to be responsible for the employees if they are laid off?
– Since the recent unemployment assistance program through NIB was launched, are we now going to shoulder the burden of any private enterprise that fails?
– Is the MP proposing another expansion of Government and the welfare state?
– Why is he teaching his constituents to be more reliant on Government, instead of themselves?
– Whatever happened to saving for a rainy day?
– Doesn’t the Country already have a bloated civil service payroll?
– Can the Government afford to intervene in this case and others like it?
– Isn’t the Country itself in financial trouble?
Why doesn’t the MP and others like him use their time to bring proposals to Parliament that will cause businesses to thrive in this Country, rather than traveling around trying to police and interfere with private enterprises?
Do you really think the MP is serious, or is he looking for political mileage?
Political mileage for sure.
Does he know any other way to conduct himself?
That’s part of the problem with our country, the citizens rely on the government, and politicans are advocating that citizens rely on the government. Why not suggest saving a bit more as Jerome mentioned, or promoting self-employment?
Oh, what about the hotel workers that will be out of work for 2/3 months? What is he suggesting the government do for them?
Unfortunately I see this as a way for the respective MP to gain political points.
Perhaps serious looks should be taken at the environment that business are forced to function in, but, that inevitably would lead to some uncomfortable realizations by Politicos and Civil service alike.
If they’re to be honest with themselves and the role they play in the downward spiral, that is.
And them we have the foreign investment modus operandi, little understood by the politicos.
Yeah, brownie points for sure.
And who will be next Mr,Mitchell,every business in the Bahamas ? What a crock of crap. It will have the snow ball effect & it is wrong.Where is this socialistic attitude coming from, Obama ? This will only create more taxes for businesses & our PM is doing a hell of a job with that right now.I think if this taxing had any effect on the people that are taxing us, maybe they might reconsider all these heavy taxes, but you see, it does not effect them.Mitchell & Obama should move to Cuba or Venezuela,I wish they would.
Mr. Mitchell’s comments are Obamanomics, the next thing he will want to happen is for government to tell business owners who to hire to run their companies like Obama did with the auto industry in the US. I think we should get rid of all the politicans, they are the ones who got us in a mess and are daily making it messier. They plain DO NOT understand what it takes to run a successful business. God forbid that Mr. Mitchell and his party become the next government. The one we have now is the best we have and they are of LITTLE good. Sad state when we have to admit we have the best of the worst running our country.
Like the politicians tell BEC, BTC, Bahamas-air etc.That’s why we have eight hundred people working four planes at Bahamas-air.Who do you think is paying for that, we are.This has got to stop & people like Mitchell want to increase it.I say boo hoo, enough is enough.The spending must stop & the sooner the better.How can business hire people if they are being taxed to DEATH.What school did these idiots go to.
Most of them went to LAW SCHOOL where they don’t teach business or common sense.
Oh so true
The wrong message sent – and for political mileage no doubt… Rely on the government for any and everything… but wasn’t this “pandora’s box” cracked open when the government paid off the straw vendors after the straw market fire?!! What message were they sending? Does either our governing party or opposition know how to conduct themselves?
It’s a “Pandora’s Box” indeed AGR.
But politicos tantalising song remains the same…I’ll help you, don’t worry.
The problem is they never tell any one that they are helping them with their own money.
It’s sick, but continues to work on people for some reason, in spite of mounting debt and tax increases to pay for all the profligacy.
When will the average voter realize that governments don’t give you ANYTHING? The only thing they give is promises, which they have no intention of fulfilling. All they do is to take from you. Point in question right now there is a road fee for trucks taking goods from customs docks, for one minute do the politicans think the business person is absorbing this? No, it is passed on to the consumer as it should be. I heard a discussion with some people about BEC’s fuel surcharge, one of the persons was saying that the government should pay the surcharge, another tried to explain that governments don’t have any money, it is the taxpayers money that they spend. Unfortunately the vast majority of Bahamians are ignorant of this fact. This will continue unless and until the taxpayers wake up and demand accountability of the politicans…I doubt this will happen in the lifetime of most of the readers of these columns. This is a sad situation to be in.