Sunday, Aug 15, 2010
Interesting idea
Guardian: Deficit crisis: let's really be in it together
The total personal wealth in the UK is £9,000bn, a sum that dwarfs the national debt. It is mostly concentrated at the top, so the richest 10% own £4,000bn, with an average per household of £4m. The bottom half of our society own just 9%. The wealthiest hold the bulk of their money in property or pensions. A one-off tax of just 20% on the wealth of this group would pay the national debt and dramatically reduce the deficit, since interest payments on the debt are a large part of government spending. So that is what should be done. This tax of 20%, graduated so the very richest paid the most, would raise £800bn.
Posted by drewster @ 11:44 PM (1067 views) Add Comment
9 Comments
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1. fallingbuzzard said...
It would if they had the cash to pay for it! But they don't
2. Wageslavex14 said...
I think the Argentinian government started seizing pension funds last year - I don't remember thinking this was a sound, 'progressive' development, but rather theft from people who are powerless to move their savings. This is the wrong target. Land value tax is the only way.
I am a Guardian reader, but I am constantly frustrated at how wrong the left wing commentators' opinions are on the economy, and how stupid their tax proposals are.
3. John East said...
Could this be the final triumph of socialism, and the destruction of the nation? Were it to happen the parasites in government, and the government workforce would no longer need to reform, house prises could go to the moon, and our population could enjoy a few more years of delusional prosperity until the last entrepreneurial, hard working, and prudent person emigrates.
Where will the socialists get their next fiscal fix then?
4. capitalist said...
Yes, it is an interesting idea in the same way that going around to my neighbours place with a gun and robbing him in order to pay off my debts is an interesting idea.
5. inbreda said...
LVT would seem to be a fairer way of achieving the same thing
(Just thought Iwould get in before MW!!)
6. icarus said...
@2 - did your neighbour make his millions/billions by working hard in the real economy and paying his taxes?
Or did he make it is some activity that caused the problem (overleverage, overlending, inflating asset bubbles, bailouts, offshoring to take advantage of China's slave labour regime, avoiding taxes through globalised accounting, etc.) And is he in a position to use his wealth to buy up public assets if they're sold off to balance the national books, as in some neoliberalised South American country?
7. capitalist said...
"...overleverage, overlending, inflating asset bubbles, bailouts, offshoring to take advantage of China's slave labour regime, avoiding taxes through globalised accounting, etc. ... And is he in a position to use his wealth to buy up public assets if they're sold off to balance the national books, as in some neoliberalised South American country? ..."
Well, there's a lot of mixed concepts there, most of which I have to say I don't agree with. But putting all that aside, it's enough to say for now that you don't fix an injustice (asset bubbles caused by government/central bank support for the fractional reserve banking system) by introducing new injustices, which new taxes by definition would do.
8. icarus said...
Which concepts are "mixed". They aren't so mixed that it's impossible for you to agree/disagree with them.
New taxes are unjust by definition??
9. Capitalist said...
It's not impossible for me to agree/disagree with your targets and I could comment on all them. For example, I don't have any problem with people who overleverage, but I would like to string up the politicians who bailed them out.
But the real point is that the root cause of asset bubbles is the banking and monetary system which governments have imposed on us. Even if my neighbour was a banker, which makes him the practical equivalent of a welfare beneficiary in my books, I still wouldn't advocate introducing a new form of government plunder which does nothing to solve the underlying problem.