"Who could be against such a thing? Me, for one. I am all for making the wealthy pay their way and, as a creature of warm blood and soft tissue, I delight in anything that winds up some of the worst people. There must be merit in an idea that gets France's Bernard Arnault chuntering about a clearly stated desire to destroy the economy this from the plutocrat (estimated net worth: 139bn) who declared,"
"But still, I can't go along with the consensus emerging around a wealth tax. It is too much of a muddle, not just financially or economically but also politically. As with so many simple and shoddy ideas, it polls beautifully yet smacks of dishonesty. If the wealth taxers seriously want to tackle big money and vested interests, they are going to the gunfight not with knives, but toothpicks."
A broad leftwing consensus calls for a wealth tax to make the rich pay for public services. The Wealth Tax Commission gathered extensive international evidence and proposed a one-off levy targeting households above a threshold. The wealth tax polls well and satisfies popular desire to punish extreme wealth, but it faces serious operational, economic and political problems. The plan risks being a messy, revenue-limited exercise vulnerable to avoidance and evasion, and it may prove ineffective at confronting entrenched power and vested interests in practice.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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