Orange juice??
Yall got money, I'd be drinking Tang and Kool Aid.

nah man, cant handle that stuff, diabetes and all.

Aside from unscrupulous food merchants, food items are expensive because we import so much of it. The government in particular the Ministry of Agriculture, really needs to establish a strong local market for meat and produce especially. Give the pockets of consumers a break, while initiating job creation and entrepeneurship. Its getting ridiculous the cost of food in this country. One bell pepper cost $3.45 for goodness sake!:realmad:

The Ministry of Agriculture won't do that. In the short run prices will spike and Bahamians will have convulsions. But in the long run, I'd say three years from the date they initiate what I think would be a phenomenal move prices will come down dramatically. But during those three years Bahamians will call for blood. And no politician would want that. FNM or PLP.

The Ministry of Agriculture won't do that. In the short run prices will spike and Bahamians will have convulsions. But in the long run, I'd say three years from the date they initiate what I think would be a phenomenal move prices will come down dramatically. But during those three years Bahamians will call for blood. And no politician would want that. FNM or PLP.

Why three years? And how would MOA go about establishing a strong local market without putting bans on imported products?

LOL. I realize that. But inflation can be controlled, predicted, alleviated, and so on and so forth.


Just do what is right, and lower the import price of bread-basket items, and put it somehwere else.

If they put a ban on imported products that will make things just as bad for just as long, probably worse. Bahamians are underproducing. If you compare imports to exports, they're underproducing by a very large amount. That means aggregate demand (Bahamians demand) is higher than aggregate supply (Bahamian supply). If you look at a demand and supply curve, whenever demand is higher than supply - prices are high. And considering the huge difference between imports and exports that means that prices will be much much higher than they are now if there's a ban on imports.

Three years is an arbitrary number. I'm assuming that's how long it would take to shut down all agricultural operations in Nassau - including the MOA and move them to Andros or Abaco. Shut down and start production. But of course these operations will have to be subsidized for a few years. Meaning more taxes.

Just do what is right, and lower the import price of bread-basket items, and put it somehwere else.


We already agree on part A, part B is where we may disagree. When you say put it somewhere else - where do you mean??

We already agree on part A, part B is where we may disagree. When you say put it somewhere else - where do you mean??


If anything, spread it around through other importables. Furnitures, computers and tech stuff, machinery and cars, luxury items like jewellry and designer goods hair care products and shoes. Just spread it evenly, as well as quite possibly, putting the tax burden on airline travel and Diesel.

Just spread it around, as well as possibly, very possibly, upping NIB from 7% to 8.5%. Institute NHI, and work the plan in full.

Food and health products need to go down, as they are vital without even saying. Even though the world prices, have much to do with how high food prices are at home, putting an extra tax on them makes the people who need these line items desperately, hurt when they feel it the most. We import too many food items, we can produce here in any event.

For example, Gladstone farms closed down...yea you heard it...a chicken farm in the Bahamas closed down. LOL....

Madness!!!

Food and health items should be FREE...ABSOLUTELY FREE... at the border!

Ok, I thought you were going to say some foolishness like tax luxury items. Well, you did say that but at least you included durable goods.

Yes...yes..I did hear of Gladstone shutting down. I heard of several of the farms shutting down. There's no way you have a chicken farm in nassau and you shutting down. There's no competition. Imported chicken is not competition. The only thing imported chicken has over domestic is a USDA stamp. Which basically means they put faith in what they can't see. Whereas domestic farms can invite you to their facilities to see quality. I'd rather see quality than see a stamp.

Just want to see if you're paying attention to what's happening with your money...

Believe me, we are aware! Every week the prices go up and the quality, and quantity, goes down and the money buys less and less.

The central bank is making it worse. At least from what I'm seeing. The higher prices go, the more money there is. According to their policy, they want to hold foreign reserves equal to 50 percent of demand deposits. So the more more there is and the higher prices go - inflation - the more reserves the bank holds, which means higher demand for foreign currency and lower demand for bahamian currency - the bahamian dollar's value vanishes. Somebody called this prudence. I still say its a gun pointed at the bahamian economy.

Ok, I thought you were going to say some foolishness like tax luxury items.
Where in the world are luxury items free?
:)
You have to pay for the things you like the most....hit them the hardest. 10% hike on all jewllery and luxury imported items.


Well, you did say that but at least you included durable goods.
Spread it all around at a 1/4 rate higher at it's peak, consumers wont feel that as much as they do the price of milk on the shelf, which has been going up since the late 90s at least; from 75c to at least a $1.00. Our babies deserve milk ghad damnit!!
:hammer:


Yes...yes..I did hear of Gladstone shutting down. I heard of several of the farms shutting down. There's no way you have a chicken farm in nassau and you shutting down. There's no competition. Imported chicken is not competition. The only thing imported chicken has over domestic is a USDA stamp. Which basically means they put faith in what they can't see. Whereas domestic farms can invite you to their facilities to see quality. I'd rather see quality than see a stamp.

Exactly. The government should have stepped in. My Gawd, the chicken farm in the Bahamas closed down. Have you seen the line at Bamboo shack on a Saturday?

This is where I spit in the face of our leadership...this is totally unacceptable!
:hammer:

Get this, SARDINES cost 99cts, you hear me!! 99cents!!:jawdroop:

I never thought the day would come when I shop in Hardings, which is owned by the Chinese by the way, or Budget for meat. Now I go to these places every week for pork chops, chicken parts, oz tail, spare ribs and lamb chops.

In ALL cases, the meats are the same quality and much, much cheaper. Now that Bahamians own City Market, not only have the prices gone up, they are forcing us to chose between brand names we don't know and generics.

Futhermore, they are also making EXTRA money of brand name stuff by charging us just a few cents less for generics brands compared to the brand name items making us buy the brand name item because it is only a few cents more.

Don't get me started on fruits and veggies. Watermelons and Cantalope and Honeydew are now only for the rich.

Talking shat bout Buy Bahamian.

I have no issue with taxing luxury items. I've already pointed that out. The higher the elasticity of price, the lower the taxes. You could double the prices on luxury items and it would not change anything. But an import tax on luxury items is money that the importer has to come out of his pocket to pay first rather than after he sells it. If bahamians made a lot of money on luxury items, then this would make sense. But I don't think Bahamians do. So it doesn't make sense. I may be wrong, since I'm not in the Bahamas, then the 20,000 dollar rolex and 40,000 pateks are probably flying off the shelves (sarcasm). So why force people to pay a tax on items that'll probably sit on their shelves for extended periods of time??

Re. Gladstone:

The government should've implemented a quality and assurance agency like the USDA. Or have USDA inspectors visit the facilities. I dunno what the government could've done to stop it. From what I heard, the primary issue was management's ineptitude. That's the word on the street.

FACTS:

Thanks for saying that. Its true, but if it had come from me I would've been attacked.