Finally the christmas season is over, this means I can return to writing about bad news again (I tried to limit myself in the christmas time, it seemed to work), and wow was there alot of bad news, I dont even know where to start really, but I'll just do the logical thing and start with what the government has been up to. As every Jamaican well knows, this cant be anything good because the government is... well a bunch of bungling idiots. Really and truly whenever I think about what the government has done I am lead to believe that these people are just playing by ear really and seeing how what they do is accepted. I dont remember ever seeing somebody change their policies so often in a one year period alone. I mean almost every policy they have implemented has been overturned in some way, what level of retardation causes this? The really sad part about all of this is that unless we do some major overhaul (ie. revolution of some sort), chances are nothing will change and we'll still be stuck being led by a bunch of buffoons.

But anyway lets look at one thing I didnt get to speak about and that is the proposed (but now revised) tax package that the finance minister at first... no second... no third suggested. This is of course ignoring the fact that the public sector will be going through a wage freeze for the next 2 years. Now at first Audley in all his intelligence (or lack thereof) decided that he wanted to tax:

1. Food items such as salt, syrup, cooking oil, noodle soups, meat, ground provisions, sardines, bread, buns, bullas, eggs and sugar are now subject to GCT.

2. Persons paying for undertaking services will also have to pay GCT on burial, cremation and items such as coffins.

3. A further SCT on Fuel and Cigarettes

4. A tax on electricity users who use over 200kwh of electricity

5. Diapers and Tampons

6. Raising the GCT from 16.5 to 17.5%

Also it is important to note that Audley stated that this package was "designed to bring efficiency and remove some of the distortions that are plaguing the system"... I'll attack that quote in a little bit.

He (Audley) and his fearless leader (Bruce) thought this was right and manageable by the people... what the %$^&*(????

First question, how do you tax ground provisions? as a matter of fact, how do you tax EVERYTHING that people eat (noting that eating is necessary to survive), are you telling me that the solution that the JLP had was to kill every single solitary Jamaican to cure our problems? The only food items which were exempt from these taxes was rice and flour... the ultimate diet. The other thing is taxing somebody for dieing. Now I'm sorry, maybe this is something that is accepted elsewhere in the world, I mean, people die all the time, why not tax them? Because its %^&*( stupid thats why. I wont say anything further on that.

The next thing is he raises the tax on fuel and on electricity, note his justification was that "we pay less for fuel than most other countries do", so what about this is bad may I ask? Am I the only person who realizes how important fuel and electricity is for our survival? Just look at it, you need transportation to go to and from work, to transport goods and services (if you produce), to do almost everything you can think of requires fuel, and we have been able to produce cheaply because of our lack of expensive fuel. Now you want to change that on a whim, despite the fact that you already changed it earlier this year. Fuel prices went up by 10 dollars since this new tax, so much so that (according to Melba's chart in this article) we have had a 50% increase on fuel costs from January of last year. Where do you think this will take the economy oh wise ones?

Oh and the piece de resistance is the tax on diapers and tampons. The solution to our economic problems is to tax women for being women, and babies for being babies. I shall say nothing more. You will notice I have no problem with raising the GCT, and I still dont, I can see the necessity there but only with other policies also changed as I have spoken about in a previous article.

Now I'll end on the quote by Audley which I spoke of up above, to refresh your memory the quote stated that the taxes were "designed to bring efficiency and remove some of the distortions that are plaguing the system". You stupid, idiotic, dimwitted, bumbleheaded, buffoon, how will this bring efficiency and remove the distortions plaguing the tax system? Please enlighten me, I have about 2 weeks until school starts which means I have all the time in the world to hear your explanation. This does nothing except continue to tax the only people who are paying taxes currently, the only people who are keeping Jamaica's economy afloat and the only people who stand to lose heavily from the package (ie the middle class, you dumb $%^&*). This will not ensure compliance, as a matter of fact this will do nothing more than continue with the status quo. It has been stated time and time again, if you want to gain compliance then do it the right way, put taxes on the people who can afford to be taxed (thats called the rich... or all you guys). To ensure compliance actually put in place compliance measures not more taxes, my 9 year old niece could've told you that.

Why do you think our tax system is rated 9th worst in the world and our ease of doing business ranking has fallen to 63? Its because nobody can do business here because you keep doing stupid $%^& and preventing people from even attempting to do business here. *sigh* I have more to say to you but I'll keep that for another time