Hone Harawira proposes a transactions tax. He calls it his ‘Hone Heke tax’—presumably because it’s intended to chop down tall poppies.
That’s certainly how it worked when it was first introduced.
It was first introduced by Genghis Khan. Yes, seriously. This is not satire. It was first introduced by Genghis Khan, when Buddhist adviser Yelü Chucai advised him to exploit conquered peoples instead of simply slaughtering them —with, of course, the threat of slaughter backing up the extraction of the tax.
Chop down tall poppies slowly instead of slaughtering them at will. That’s the secret of the Hone Heke tax.
Lovely, huh?
An FTT was such a disaster to the economy of Sweden that it was abolished within a year of bringing it in over 1990.
ReplyDeleteThat link well worth a read: scroll down to 'The international experience', then Sweden. Also a serve against capital gains taxes.