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AMMONNEWS -By Abdulillah - I am not sure about how you all feel, but I am a bit worried that we are rushing to fast to accommodate the so called investors in Jordan, while the poor in Jordan seem to be getting poorer and our government is still incapable of providing us with a balanced budget where we don’t always have to be looking for a hand-out.

Don’t get me wrong I am a big proponent of cutting red tape and streamlining the process for investors to enter the Jordan economy in an organized and regulated respectable way.

I am a very big proponent of a free market driven economy, allowing the market place to dictate the price of goods and services, as long as these investors are not asking for Jordan’s public sector to absorb their losses or taxes.

Personally I really don’t care if these type investors take their money and walk because they are the wrong type of investor for Jordan. We are looking for those who want to be stakeholders and not vampires living off the blood and sweat of the people to line their pockets while the rest are starving.

Listen; I know that the Jordan tax system and revenue service is antiquated, slow and flawed in many ways, but that’s what we have. If the problem is with the service then clean it up, don’t wave a magic wand of favoritism and make issues disappear that may very well be legitimate because we cannot give our services enough manpower and money to expedite or correct inefficiencies.

My brothers and sisters, we are wanting for good services, we are wanting for good investors and we are wanting and desperate for good jobs, lets all get up and scream our heads off that we need an internal revenue system that works; that has authority with some teeth to go after law breakers and tax cheats. We have plenty of CPA’s and good accountants and good finance people let’s get them on board and fix the problem.

Let’s also be fair with the burden of share. The rich cannot be made exempt because of privilege or power. They breathe the same air, eat food like the rest of us and go to the bathroom. Time they cleaned up behind themselves as well and paid their share of taxes. In fact I will go as far as to say let’s make it all easy on everyone; let’s have a flat tax, one based on annual income.

Let’s also put a large tax on cigarettes and liquor and other evil merchandize and make these companies pay for the health services we provide to our citizens to overcome the evil addictions they cause.
Let’s put and added value tax on big ticket luxury items as well, like those big gas guzzling cars and other goods that the average citizen cannot afford.

I am disturbed between the vast gap that has arisen in Jordan and for that matter the entire world between the rich and the poor. The vast self-indulgences that the rich take while the poor look onare appalling. Its ungodly behavior, and we in Jordan need to be the first to hold fast to what’s right and not follow blindly the rest of the world, lest we turn into another Greece or even Spain which supposedly has taken vast austerity measures and some control over their previous appetites, that they still have 22% unemployment.

Yet even after all this, you don’t see the rich getting punished! The bankers got their bail-out and the investors walked away from their obligations to pay, leaving the misery for the average citizen to bear.
They even went further than just run away; they pushed for these burdensome draconian austerity measures so hard while gleefully dismissing warnings that slashing government spending so drastically and raising taxes would cause deep recessions.They went even further by exhorting us all that if we did this it would inspire financial confidence into the system, but it didn’t did it. Like I said look at Greece and Spain.
The one that escaped and has gotten back on square footing once again after some very hard times was Iceland. They didn’t do a bail-out of their banks or greedy investors; they let them fail instead and furthermore they held them responsible and stripped them or their assets to pay off their debts and jailed them if they couldn’t. They have since instituted good regulatory oversight and sound banking discipline back into their system.

Again fix the system and the inequities, and no free rides for anyone please.

God Bless Jordan and Its People