The Robin Hood Tax
There should be a website that details – and tears apart – the seemingly endless number of Facebook groups that are set up by people with a slender grip of reality. Another day brings another unthinking left-wing Facebook associate joining another idiotic group:
Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on bankers that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and abroad.This is so irritating in so many ways that it really is a case of some many gripes, so little time. So I’ll focus instead on my biggest issue with this craptastic idea. It isn’t so much the damage this might do to an already struggling banking sector, nor the naïveté involved in the idea that the whole world could agree on one particular point of economic policy, when they cannot even agree on what the best basis of an economy should be. It isn’t even the ongoing stigmatisation of the banking world, despite the reality that others – such as governments and consumers – also played a crucial part in the down-turn we’re just coming out of.
If governments took a tiny tax of 0.05% from international bankers’ transactions, it could generate hundreds of billions of pounds every year – that could stop cuts in crucial public services at home in UK, and help fight global poverty and climate change.
No. What really fucks me off is this naïve assumption that government knows best. That if you give money to government you are automatically doing a good thing. That is, of course, total shite. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look at what the British government spends its money on. War and (generally poor, not fit for purpose) weapons. More CCTV cameras, more invasions into the privacy of the people. And – best of all for these banking haters – buying large stakes in failing/failed banks. Yeah, let’s give the governments more money. Because they don’t waste it now, do they?
And this notion that the money will be used to stop crucial cuts in public spending at home in the UK – bollocks. If the government gets around to making cuts in public services, then than can do so by cutting out some of the waste within the public sector.
The Robin Hood Tax is perfect propaganda for the government. It subtly yet effectively reinforces the idea that the government is a benign entity that will do more and more good the more money we all give to it. Unfortunately, the government is not benign. It is both wasteful and, on occasion, extremely malignant. Licensing the government to take more money from the private sector is like giving a gambling addict 200 quid and pushing him into Ladbrokes. It is stupid, it is dumb and it is irresponsible.
The Robin Hood Tax – stealing from the rich to give to the incompetent. Unfortunately, the ineptitude of the government ensures any money they take from banks will not reach the poor.
Labels: Banks, Facebook, Spending, Taxes, Witless Morons
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 12:31 pm
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I'm in love with the "Very small tax that raises BILLIONS of pounds" argument.
Funny stuff.
"Already struggling banking sector"? That would be the banking sector that paid out £6 billion in bonuses just one year after being bailed out of these noxious government, would it? In the UK alone. And The banking sector that is having to pay interest on saving at 0.5% yet is charging interest on loans at an average of 7.6%? Hmm. Yes, poor dears. They really are in a pickle.
Actually, it's a tax on all transactions, and if you have been prudent and wise in your financial dealings to build up your capital as a hedge against infirmity, it's rather galling to see some idle know-nothings declare that your hard-earned should be nibbled away at every time you make a financial transfer.
It's also pretty insulting to see a 'Tobin' type tax referred to as being my idea. Excuse me? I robbed evil tax gatherers, not the poor. Although honestly officer, I'm a reformed character nowadays.
Sincerely,
R Hood esq.
Martin,
Yep, that banking sector.
The government chose to bail out certain (not all) banks that failed. If those banks have paid bonuses, then it is with the blessing of the government (or at least the failure of the government to object, which amounts to the same thing). So forgive me if I don't think that the government taking more money from the banks is a good idea. Because, as their interactions with the banking sector has shown, they are absolutely fucking incompetent when it comes to dealing with that sector.
I have little sympathy for the banks; however, there are still some with a modicum of ability. I have even less faith in the efficacy of government. Giving them money from any source is dumb. More taxes means throwing good money after bad.
TNL
The other small catch is (as i understand it anyway) that banks only make fractions of % on deals anyway - it's only because there are huge sums of money involved (billions) that it creates any meaningful profit.
And i agree with you with regards to giving the goverment more money - they'll only waste it. Maybe more austere times will focus their minds a bit on things that actually *need* money spent on them (no, i'm not holding my breath)
OH FFS. It's not even a tax on the frickin banking sector. It's a tax on people doing transactions. Yup, the cost gets passed on to someone else. A Tobin tax would reduce the quantity of financial transactions (which might or might not be a good thing - what is called throwing sand in the gears of global finance), but most of the cost will be passed directly onto consumers of financial services - which at the end of the day is the public.
It's really very difficult to find ways to actually tax banks (eg their shareholders) or bank employees without simply ending up passing the cost on to the end consumer.
I hate the Robin Hood idiots - rob the rich who make up for it by taxin' the poor even more and giving the money to the retards in government. Moron is too generous a way to describe them.
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