WeblogBahamas.com

Peter Schiff on "More Government Equals Fewer Jobs"

Jerome Pinder

A good article by Peter Schiff.  The same could be said about The Bahamas.

With today’s unexpected decline in December payrolls, the cry for more job-related stimulus will grow even louder. But the sad truth is that any new stimulus or jobs bills will ultimately swell the ranks of the unemployed, thereby raising calls for an even bigger federal effort. If we are not careful, government regulations, subsidies, and spending, all designed to fight unemployment, could push the labor market into a death spiral.

Regulation acts like a tax on job creation. By subjecting employers to all sorts of extra expenses when they hire people, regulations increase the cost of employment far beyond the wages employers actually pay their workers. In fact, some regulations are specifically tied to the number of workers employed. This provides some employers with a strong incentive to stay small and not hire.

Some thoughts on birth control

Sidney Sweeting, DDS

I approach this issue with the full understanding that it is an issue "where angels fear to tread" but after suffering through the images of the devastation in Haiti the almost constant mention of families that had a high number of children really begged for attention. One woman said that she had lost her husband two years ago and she has eight children to support.

Sometime in the 60's the late Dr. Andrew  Esfakis tried to start a programme here in the Bahamas to educate Bahamian women on the necessity of birth control to get them to understand that they should consider only the number of children that they could educate and support but he received so much opposition from the church, one denomination in particular, that he had to shelve his plans and to this day they remain on the shelf.

Moses Guest - Song of the week - Wheel - February 8, 2010

Rick Lowe

Moses Guest is a four man Texas-based, Southern Rock Band. The band members are; Graham Guest, Rick Thompson, James Edwards and Jeremy Horton somewhat reminiscent of the Grateful Dead.

I picked up their Best Laid Plans CD and take pleasure in posting Wheel below for your listening pleasure.

And you know the routine by now. Visit their web site here... and buy some of their material please.

Lessons in Freedom: The Face of Envy

Tibor R. Machan

"Yet this is no surprise, not at least to those who have followed Ehrenreich's paper trail, the numerous books she has penned which attack bourgeois society for even caring about the enjoyment of life!..."

In THE WEEK, January 16, 2010, the item "The last word" is given to someone whose attitudes and ideas have always put me off.  I am speaking of Barbara Ehrenreich, a prolific author whose major theme tends to be that the world needs to make equality its primary public purpose and until that comes about, let everyone be miserable.

Going green in The Bahamas, reprise, reprise, reprise, reprise

Rick Lowe

In June of 2009 I heard or read that the Bahamas Government had received a grant from the IDB to distribute compact fluorescent lightbulbs and typed this rather cynical post.

Hearing nothing I followed up again with this post in October 2009 and this post on December 3, 2009.

Well on January 8, 2010 The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce announced that:

"The Government of The Bahamas (GOBH) has received financing from the Inter-American Development Bank and through resources of the Global Environment Facility toward the cost of promoting energy efficiency and sustainable energy in The Bahamas, and it intends to apply part of the proceeds to the procurement of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL), solar water heaters (SWHs), and solar photovoltaics (PVs). Bidding will be governed by the Inter-American Development Banks eligibility rules and procedures.  Please see attached if you are interested in submitting bids to supply any of the items listed.

"Click here (pdf) for more details."

Someone once said, "All movement is not progress, just as all motion is not forward."

I guess that's way things work with the government?

Michael Moore's Anti-Greed Film To Be Subsidized by Michigan Taxpayers?

Rick Lowe

Here's another story full of irony. This time it's Michael Moore seeking tax credits he railed about in his most recent film "Capitalism: A Love Story".

One wonders how these people live with themselves.

Read the full story here... at Michigan Capital Confidential, a news service by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Newfoundland, Canada Premier goes to US for heart surgery

Rick Lowe

There's a large dose of irony in this story.

The Premier of Newfoundland, Canada, Mr. Danny Williams, is headed to the US for heart surgery.

While he has every right to do so, particularly if the procedure he requires it not available in Canada, it is certainly an interesting commentary on how great the Canadian Health Care system really is.

Don't forget, if I remember correctly, the government outlaws private hospitals and services.

Read the CBC News story and watch the video here...

Read the National Post article here...

Of course our government wants to implement a similar system here, but our results will be different, right?

What's your take?

Lessons in Freedom: Fallacies of the Clunker Program

Tibor R. Machan

Most have no time to consider the big picture so when the clunker program comes their way, they think only of the immediate consequences. It all reminds me of those horrible failed urban renewal government plans to raze innumerable small city communities and built huge high rise apartments, plans that Robert Moses of New York City pushed on New Yorkers all the time, which the late Jane Jacobs, the brilliant theorist of city life, opposed most of her life. But when you present the artist conception of the new high rises it tends to look kind of cool and many people are seduced by them.

What can the Bahamas do about the Haitian's in our midst?

Rick Lowe

Few of us around today had any influence on public policy when Haitian's started illegally migrating here for a better way of life, but the vast majority of the middle class and above hire Haitian labourers, both legal and illegal and this has been going on since I can remember.

This so called "problem" with Haitian's has been mounting because our founding fathers and forebears chose to ignore it, as we have done many other things, like the Montague Ramp for example. And for the past twenty years of our modern history we have also turned a blind eye.

Why do you think this is?

Persuasion vs. Force by Dr. Mark Skousen

Rick Lowe

Dr. Skousen was in town for his annual conference over at Atlantis, the World Economic Summit.

While here he was the special guest at a dinner for The Nassau Institute on Monday night.

He spoke to the sold out room at Luciano's of Chicago about his life here in the 1980's, some changes he would make to our economy and also gave a bit of investment advice.

One of the neat give aways was his essay, Persuasion Vs. Force and I found it online for your pleasure.

Here's a snippet: