Rick Lowe

Well, well The Bahamas Government has set aside $25 million to "aid the private sector".

In a nutshell, the government thinks it can create employment by subsidising a portion of the salary of new hires (picked by the Government) for a predetermined period of time.

The president of the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation (BCCEC), Mr. Khaillis Rolle was quoted in Tribune Business yesterday as saying initial responses are not very favorable:

"Essentially, what they're (the BCCEC members) saying is that if the Government is going to spend $25 million, 'spend it where it will most matter to me," Mr Rolle explained, "reducing costs of operation, helping to pay down the overdraft, interest in bank loans in difficulty. I understand the Government has to generate jobs going into an election period, but allow me to determine where the money is spent'."

So the BCCEC is canvassing its entire membership to see what they think about this controversial issue.

Mr. Rolle went on to point out that, "Lower taxes equals more jobs; higher taxes equals less jobs", and on this point the members are correct.

Where I beg to differ is that some BCCEC members actually think the government should be using taxpayer money to subsidise their private business in the first place!

When special interests are hoping to suck at the public teat is there any wonder the government thinks they need to have public policy that creates the wrong incentives like this?

I hope the BCCEC Board is able to convince their membership that favour this idiocy it's a bad idea.

It's not a metter of the money not being spent where it should. It should not be spent at all. Government subsidising anything does not make sense as we will all have to be taxed more or additional debt has to be piled on to an already listing ship of state to pay for it.