Don't get your hopes up; I'm nowhere near ready to discuss this idea yet. But I have been reading just a little, and I came across this comment.I want to believe it isn't serious. But I'm afraid that it might well be.Its lack of logic, combined with its glib heartlessness, reminds me of certain Victorian approaches to poverty. I'm surprised there's no mention of a workhouse in the comment.

"I just hope that the VAT has very few exemptions. AND it especially NEEDS to apply to ALL bread-basket items - and allow for their price to rise that much above price-control levels. There are WAY too many breaks for the poor - and that is why we have more of them. A new food distribution group has formed in Nassau which will provide soup kitchens for the poor - so they do not starve. I agree with that. We are civilized and so we should not have people starving on the streets. But the price of baby food, diapers, bread, rice, grits etc. NEEDS TO GO UP. Too many "poor people" are sending their money out of the country by way of the dozens of little money-shops that have cropped up all over the place. That money needs to stay in the Bahamas. If they have to pay VAT - then at leave 15% will stay. If they are allowed to not pay because "they are poor" then they will keep sending the money away and the country will suffer. The so-called "poor Bahamian" seems to find money every few months to hop on a plane to Miami and spend spend spend. Again, money going out of the country."