Curtailing some activity that can’t bear a ½ of 1% tax while taxing that which can constitutes a socialistic position to you? What is your criteria for considering something socialist?
Ever hear of truth in lending? I suggest you engage in a little truth in taxation.
That "½ of 1% tax" is compounded by the number of accounts & instuments the money must pass through to consumate the trade becoming a 365% tax on the basic value of the commerce being financed.
That is not only socialist it is down right usurous and confiscative.
As posted in a prior reply regarding the effect of the Tobin tax you advocate:
http://www.europarl.eu.int/workingpapers/econ/107_en.htm#chap3
Table 1: Simple annualised effective Tobin Tax rates for differing turn-around periods, assuming constant exchange rates (see also " Calculating equivalent annual tax rates"
Nominal Tax rate (%) Effective Tax rate (annual %) 1 day/ trading day* 1 week 1 month 3 months 1 year 10 years 0.01 7.3/4.8 1.04 0.24 0.08 0.02 0.002 0.05 36.5/24.0 5.2 1.2 0.4 0.1 0.01 0.1 73/48.0 10.4 2.4 0.8 0.2 0.02 0.15 109.5/72.0 15.6 3.6 1.2 0.3 0.03 0.2 148/96.0 20.8 4.8 1.6 0.4 0.04 0.25 182.5/120.0 26.0 6.0 2.0 0.5 0.05 0.5 365/240 52.0 12.0 4.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 730/480 104.0 24.0 8.0 2.0 0.2 * As formulated by Tobin, the annualised rate was calculated on the basis of what a round-trip would cost if carried out every day, on the basis of 240 trading days in the year.
should be 52% effective tax rate for a 1 wk of trade flow changing 240 hands in contract trades, (i.e. contract for delivery at guranteed price to the seller of goods), not unusual for todays markets. Most contracts will change hands several times a day until traded to the party who accepts delivery of goods for the current market price.
52% tax on the basic trade value of anything is confiscative.
Our dialogue is getting stale again, as it did on a previous thread. Putting aside hyperbole, there is, say, $100T per year in stock and bond trades. A ½ of 1% tax on those transactions (assuming 20% lower volume and 20% avoidance) will raise, say, $200B per year. You’re okay with raising substantially more from taxing retail sales. You’re willing to collect $50 billion per year from the small class of new home purchasers. Yet you deem this financial transaction tax as socialistic, usurious, and confiscatory. You have given no basis for this opinion.