(Louis Rhead)
A
financial speculation tax (PDF) is a good policy. Imposing a tiny percentage tax on sales of stocks, futures, options and other financial transactions could raise tens of billions of dollars to create jobs and rebuild our infrastructure and safety net, while reducing the kind of short-term financial speculation that has so damaged our economy.
"Robin Hood tax" is a terrible name for it.
Don't get me wrong. I love Robin Hood. The Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie is one of my all-time favorites, a movie so beloved that my childhood dog was named after it. And in the legend, Robin Hood was a righter of wrongs, someone who fought for the 99 percent. But the shorthand for Robin Hood's signature activity is "steal from the rich and give to the poor." As much as I support Robin Hood's activities, that's not what we're talking about here, on two levels.
First, instituting a tiny tax on financial transactions isn't theft. It's just not, on any level or by any reasonable definition. But if you start framing one kind of tax as theft, you legitimize the general frame that taxation = theft. Republicans would love for us to spread that idea.
Second, what would be done with the money raised by a financial speculation tax would not be "giving" and it wouldn't be about "the poor." The government would be collecting a tax for the support of services and investments that benefit all of us. That's the function of government, for heaven's sake! Neither would the poor be the only ones to see the benefits in a strengthened economy and services. Some of the revenues would doubtless be spent on programs targeting poverty, and that's a good thing, but thinking about the money raised by such a tax as dedicated only to poor people would be lousy policy and even worse politics.
So, please, pass the financial speculation tax bill being put forward by Rep. Peter DeFazio and Sen. Tom Harkin, which would institute a fee of just $0.03 per $100 financial trade. But come up with a better name for it than "Robin Hood tax."