Budget Day under the PNM is for most people like the day of apocalypse for them – not as one broadcaster said a day we look forward to; he should have said a day we look forward to (with dread) as if the hangman is awaiting our arrival.
So while our “experts” are busily expatiating – proffering their views on what should constitute the budget – with most of these pseudo-intellectuals focusing on which subsidy should be reduced or removed, none of them offers any real ideas as to how government might raise revenue outside of their limited vision of taxing citizens and depending on citizens’ personal investments.
First of all, for those experts who do not know, there are tax-free countries – some right in our geographic neighbourhood – eg: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. These tax-free countries were able to achieve this status courtesy the financial wizardry of their governments simply because those who are chosen to manage their finances have the specific skills for the job as is the case of Grenada whose Finance Minister and Prime Minister is a Ph.D. in mathematics and is considered the best finance minister in this part of the world.
It is simple: you can’t put rocks and stones in the mint and hope to get back 24 carat gold. The point here is you could talk till thy kingdom come if those who should be listening are the type of dunderheads who inspired the adage, don’t cast pearls before swines.
This government in power since 2015 has not been investing in anything except the idea that it would raise revenue from picking its citizens’ pockets. When a man builds a house, he is investing in placing a roof over his head, a floor under his foot and in the long term a place for his children and grandchildren to live. It is built with his savings and loans from the bank, help from friends and family and when government is waiting to bushwhack him with a tax for his act of entrepreneurship, isn’t that an act so obscene and shameless on their part that the riot act should be read out to them if they implement it; that if they had not shut down Petrotrin and so much of the energy sector, revenue could have been flowing into the treasury without having to see human capital as their target.
For those experts who also do not know, Governments also provide free housing as Ghaddafi did in Libya, so while homeowners should be rewarded for taking the initiative in a field of endeavour that should be their responsibility, they are taking punitive actions against those who are helping themselves.
The tragedy of offering advice, ideas, suggestions to those who lack the IQ to be in a form 4 economic class is that that advice is utterly wasted and shouldn’t be perpetually wasted on those who are not fit to comprehend its meaning and message.
Instead of an intellectual appreciation of good advice, what you get in return is the arrogance and wastage which characterize the nature of the dumb and dumber.
