The headline above is a quote from Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, reportedly made at the recent CARICOM Summit in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
He is reported to have gone on to say that, "It doesn't work anywhere else in the world." "We in The Bahamas tell ourselves that we are able to control prices but we are not."
Finally a politician has seen the light!
For far too long politicians the world over use the fallacious argument that price controls help the so called "small man", when studies have shown the exact opposite is the case.
Check out the following articles for further information:
Government should send price controls to the scrap heap of history like other countries have done! This will ensure better prices and more competition... sound policy that really benefits the consumer.
Read the article Price Controls...a fallacy here...
As C. Jackson Grayson, who headed Nixon's price-wage control experiment, warned Congress when it was considering capping medical costs: "Price controls will make things worse. Believe me, I've been there...Controls have not worked in 40 centuries. They will not work now."
Read the full article Price Controls. Burdensome regulations just do not work! here...
And
There are valid suggestions being circulated that representation should be made to government to raise the mark up allowed on used cars to forty (40) percent. I disagree; my recommendation is that we should scrap price controls completely.
Instead of the legislators controlling others while "protecting" their own professions they should spend a bit more time raising the level of the debate instead of creating mischief on the one hand and appeasement on the other.
Read the complete article Price Controls here...
You can bet the Opposition will attempt to make political mileage on this one, but Mr. Ingraham is absolutely correct.
So, three cheers for a politician that finally has the guts to speak the truth on a highly political matter.
Now it's up to The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and other like minded organisations to keep the pressure on until the Price Control Act is removed from the statutes.
