The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

Continually “negotiating” with government over the terms of negative public policy and suggesting this process helps make a bad public policy more palatable at the outset, is as corrupt as the bad policy itself.

Claiming victory today over lessening the policies impact is pyrrhic and does not remove the negative effects of the policy, nor does it prevent the government from changing and making the policy even more burdensome in the future.

“Negotiating better terms” for Value Added Tax or Tax Compliance Certificates for example, while agreeing with the general principle of these negative public policies, continues to add to government red tape and the size of the country’s already bloated bureaucracy, and the eventual downfall of the market system.

If the political directorate was sincere with their “negotiating” would government spending still be on the drastic rise? Would they be threatening to present more legislation of a fascist bent to harm prospects for employment?

The list can go on, but suffice it to say, the business community needs to take a moral stand. The government needs to be left to be hoisted by its own petard for its bad public policy. Unfortunately negotiating compromise with the government makes one complicit with the implementation and outcomes that have been foisted upon all Bahamians in recent years.

RICK LOWE

Nassau,

September 4, 2016.

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