G20: The Verdict

thank you so much to everyone who has gone on fighting for this in spite of all

the opposition .

 PERHAPS A DIFFERENT BRAVE NEW WORLD IS POSSIBLE IF ENOUGH OF US 'ORDINARY PEOPLE', GO ON WITH THE STRUGGLE AGAINST INJUSTICE.

AND A POLITICS THAT TRULY REPRESENTS THE PEOPLE!

The thing to remember here is that the Tories NEVER HAVE and NEVER WILL "give" anything to the peasant classes.Every Daily Mail reader should be forced to read up on history. Say, on how the old age pension came about, paid holidays, ANY social benefit for the needy... THEN remember this when it's time to vote. Trouble is, in the privacy of the polling booth the old personal greed creeps back. PLEASE people, get them out for GOOD this time. These robber barons hold ALL ordinary folk in contempt and the sooner we all realise it the better. How do I know this? (unlike most of you) I have close relatives sitting in the upper house and know MANY MPs well. Any working person is seen simply as a cash cow to be milked as they choose.

How ridiculous.  Like every previous generation of Left-wing idiots, you think that the worlds' problems would be solved with a little bit more taxation of people who've got more money than you.  Well let me tell you something.  If this ridiculous tax goes through, it won't be the banks that pay it.  And it won't be the bankers that pay it.  They're already up to their necks in income tax and corporation tax in any event, although one wouldn't think it to read what you lot have to say.

No, the really funny part is that the people who will pay this tax will be you.  The banks will just pass it on to their clients as a transaction cost, as they do stamp duty.  And their clients will be the people managing your pensions and savings, the little bits of money you are allowed to keep after the absurd bloated government has taken a huge bite out of the money you earn to keep the Blairs and Browns and Camerons and Cleggs of this world in power.  So you will be a little bit poorer, and the government will spend a little bit more money, and the welfareism and socialism and waste and profligacy will get a bit bigger AND NOTHING WILL IMPROVE AT ALL.

Why don't you take a look at the real world.  Taxing other people (as you naively think) is not not going to make things better.  If socialism was capable of solving the world's problems it would have done so long ago.  Look at the shoes you are wearing.  Look at the clothes you stand up in.  The food you ate for dinner.  The transport you get around in.  The computers (let's face it) that you get your news from and use to communicate.  All of these things were provided by CAPITALISM.  If it was left to socialism to feed and clothe you, you would have died of hunger and cold a long time ago, like the millions in Stalin's Russia.  If people don't stop biting the hand that feeds them, and learn to accept the truth about life, there is no hope for any of us.  

Unfortunately the Robin Hood tax will not address the underlying causes of inequality nor will it stop future economic (or property) booms and busts or rid the world of poverty and inequality. 

Until a fundamental wrong is corrected in our economic analysis and policies, there can never be anything other than poverty, unemployment and inequality in every country in the world. 

Rises in property prices (that are actually rises in land prices but not buildings as they devalue as they age as do other human made objects) are seen as a good thing for some but are an impediment for tenants (residential and business) and for those who cannot afford to buy a home.  We do not take the same attitude to rises in the price of food, clothes, cars or other goods or services we buy.  The media never criticises the rise in house prices in the same way they are critical of an increase in the price of petrol.  Yet, land prices are far more damaging to the economy both in terms of costs to business and those seeking to purchase a home as well as distorting bank lending to the extent we suffer property booms and slumps.  It should be recognised that the value, and therefore the price, of land increases without any effort on the part of the land owner.  However, owner occupiers of homes only receive a drop in the ocean of natural resource wealth – it is the monopoly owners of the world’s land that hold the rest of us to ransom when we need to occupy land for our homes or businesses or to manufacture goods.  Yet, their unearned income is virtually ignored by economists, politicians, academics and commentators.

Monopoly owners of the world’s land and other natural resources will always take the surplus wealth that we all create as workers and investors (public and private) and that is not just or fair or right or even economically sound.  Monopoly owners of land and other natural resources have never lifted a finger in order to own and control the natural wealth that arises from our combined demand and use of all natural resources.  As populations grow and demand for goods and services grow, so their unearned income grows.  Everything we need for our existence - our homes, our businesses, our public services, our food, our consumables, our leisure etc - all require land and other natural resources in order to carry out those activities. 

The ignorance (or deliberate manipulation) of economists and politicians the world over has led to the current world economic crisis.  Until the economic rent of land and other natural resources is rightfully restored to the public purse to be used for maintaining and developing our public services and to replace negative taxes such as income tax, VAT, and property taxes on buildings.

Income tax does not redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor – because income tax can be and is evaded and avoided by the rich.  Workers on PAYE (in the UK) pay their taxes; the rich don’t and monopoly owners of land and other natural resources sponge off the rest of us and have done so for generations.  Since the government increased the top rate of tax for high earners to 50%, the FTSE 100 company directors have given themselves a 50% annual pay rise – more than enough to pay for the increased tax and still leave a healthy surplus in their pockets. 

In every town or city in the UK, we can observe empty and underused sites and buildings that are kept out of use either deliberately for speculative purposes or through inefficiency.  Property speculation is a major underlying cause of the current economic crisis – fuelled by greedy banks who were lending money to property speculators thereby pushing up land prices above their true value until the property bubble burst.

By collecting the economic rent of each natural resource – including on all land, oil, minerals, the spectrum, landing slots etc, the natural wealth we all create though our demand and use of these resources will prevent speculation in them and encourage the careful use the of them. 

Neither the Robin Hood Tax nor a higher rate income tax will address the underlying causes of world poverty; taxing the annual rental value of all of our natural resources including land will.

See www.labourland.orgfor more information.  

Mr Cameron is bound to look after his own . Barings bank went bust in 1995 and Leeson was the scapegoat. In reality the recession the threat of a major meltdown started as early as the 1800's when Barings bank had to be bailed out due to toxic loans to Argentina that had a new president who refused to pay back the loans. It is no suprise that Sir Ewen Cameron was an associate of Barings and just happens to be Camerons great grandfather. Leeson was unlucky because he was given extra money to try and cut his losses but an earthquake in Kobe in Japan followed by a tsunami meant that this impacted on the stockmarket in Signapore we saw a repeat of this scenario in Japan in 2011. In february 2006 Osborne went to Ireland to listen and to learn praising the long term Irish economic miracle the eurozone and rubbishing the UK economy. In February 2011 he refused to sign off the european accounts claiming it was corrupt. Cameron accused Pakistan of not doing enough to fight terrorism because he upset te government he does a u-turn and give Pakistan 650 million educational package even before the ink was dry on the cheque the Americans killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. On the 1st of September 1969 whilst King Idris was in Turkey having medical treatment Gaddafi seized power the crown prince and the government were thrown in jail. The royal family contacted the UK government asking for the SAS to go to Lybia and overthrow Gadaffi. The Americans intervened stating that Lybia was an oil rich nation and that Gaddafi was sufficiently anti-marxist to be considered a good friend. Saddam Hussein was using Tabun and other weapons of mass destruction against the Kurds and the  Iranian army when America restored diplomatic relations despite UN protests. Saddam Hussein received an award from UNESCO for increasing literacy reducing poverty and homelessness yet this man like Gaddafi was a tyrant . Money and the banks rule the world and most wars are either to create wealth or divert attention from problems. This was true in Germany ,Argentina and the UK. Osborne wanted to know why companies like Google chose Ireland whilst already knowing the answer that they were not paying taxes. France and Germany now want Ireland to pay back what it owes as part of its bailout package. Cameron stated that people who can afford to buy should become home owners. Despite the fact that the present recession started in the housing market in the USA. THE HIGHEST HOME OWNERSHIP IN EUROPE IS IN GREECE AND THE LOWEST IS GERMANY WHICH OF THESE IS THE LARGEST ECONOMY ?          

I strongly agree that the Robin Hood Tax would work I really hope it becomes reality as this would help society a great deal.