FabianPattberg.com

Help us to tackle poverty and climate change: Support the Robin Hood Tax

February 10th, 2010 - 12:50 pm

I am not really the big campaigner and I am highly critical of many campaigns that are supposed to help the poor and that aim to help to fight climate change but today a campaign was launched that I am strongly supporting and that I wanted you to know about. This campaign is intended to introduce a so called ‘Robin Hood Tax’.

This is how the idea is being described on the campaign website:
‘The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on bankers that would raise billions to tackle poverty and climate change, at home and abroad. By taking an average of 0.05% from speculative banking transactions, hundreds of billions of pounds would be raised every year. That’s easily enough to stop cuts in crucial public services in the UK, and to help fight global poverty and climate change.’

This video comes with the launch today. It makes it very clear what the logic behind the tax is.

Here are some recent articles about the launch:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/10/business/business-uk-britain-banktax.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8506718.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/10/robin-hood-tax-pressing-problems
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/02/10/celebs-charities-and-unions-call-for-robin-hood-tax-on-banks-to-help-the-poor-115875-22031754/
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-09/-robin-hood-tax-on-banks-would-aid-poor-u-k-non-profits-say.html

So please sign up to help us promote this possible tax to help the poor and fight climate change. Remember every good thing you do, no matter how small, will make our world a better place. None of us can change the world on our own but we can definitely change the world together.

Categories: General Sustainability & CSR, Sustainability & CSR News
Tags: Tags: campaign, climate change, help the poor, Robin Hood Tax, Support
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kagnu

When the Income Tax was being discussed in the U.S.Congress, one representative affirmed his opposition by stating that if you could tax the American people 3%, you could tax them 97%; he was laughed off the floor; but about 40 years later, he was proven correct when the marginal "progressive" rate reached or exceeded 90%. Agreement to confiscation "in principle" leads to expropriation without limits. Anyone purporting to speak in the "name of the people" (or "saving the planet") garners unlimited power against individuals and "lesser" groups. Eventually the 0.05% "tax" will become 5% and then more. I doubt most individuals would agree to such "takings" were it not for the power of the guns in the hands of (though usually behind the backs of) politicians, judges, and the police who support them. The Czechs understand this quite well, as do most of those only recently freed from the "blessings" of state control under the USSR. What you propose is feeding a baby wolf in sheep's clothing, made to look cute and pretty and harmless until its early bottle-feeding inevitably builds a voracious and dangerous appetite.

FabianPattberg

Thanks for the comment. I like the metaphor of a baby wolf in sheep's clothing but I have to disagree on the point that this is a negative tax for us all.
This tax would be more beneficial then damaging to us. If you think about it in that way that we do not want and need a very poor Africa or South America in the long term. The better they are off the better for us and the better for the whole world.
The same can be said for Climate Change. If we do not do something about it now it will not only be much more expensive than this tax but it will also have catastrophic future consequences. Poverty and climate change.

Klem

Tax yourself pal. Leave the rest of us out of your save the world tax.

FabianPattberg

Hi. I totally understand your point but I would like to know why a 0,05% tax on bankers transactions is something you feel is not worth supporting. Everyone has their reasons. What is yours?