The Robin Hood Tax

I love the stories of Robin Hood. I love the idea of taking from the corrupt rich idiots and giving it to poor and  needy people instead. Introducing something that promotes these ideals will surely be a winner then. What can possibly go wrong!?

So now let's talk about the Robin Hood tax. The point at which it all went wrong...

The first mistake was calling it (or at least letting it be referred to) as the Robin Hood tax. Most people are like me and love to hear about how the Sheriff of Nottingham was constantly bettered by a heroic freedom fighter and his gang. In the UK this ws the old Labour government's baby, now Nicolas Sarkozy of France has decided he wants in on it. Neither Sarkozy or Gordon Brown is anything like Robin Hood. I can no more imagine them in tights and holding Nottingham's taxes to ransom, than I can imagine them slow-dancing with Angela Merkel. In fact, people like that are the kind of people I wished were victims of Robin Hood's scheming because to be honest, they've not seen the poverty line in a long time...

So where does that leave us? With a poorly-named tax - but what is the tax? Well if you bomb on down to the official website you'll see that they're all about taking from the rich and giving to the poor. They really tug on your heartstrings: schools, hospitals, global poverty, climate change - I bet they even give £3 a month to help the snow leopards...

I looked for actual figures but none were forthcoming, in the 'Everything you need to know' section the site just spouted rubbish like 'The Robin Hood tax is justice'. Oh well that's alright then. Is that really all I need to know.

Sarkozy plans to tax financial transactions and this has been dubbed a 'Robin Hood tax'. He will put a tiny tax on each transaction as part of his measures to kick start the ailing French economy. He hopes to accrue the grand total of £0.8 billion per year. Admirable. That's sure to cut his deficit. Or it could be a load of CAC, if you'll pardon the pun...

What Sarkozy is really hoping will happen is his partner-in-crime, Ms Merkel, will join him and then Great Britain will run in at the last minute to join the party and then the US and China will both buckle under intense pressure. You may have already guessed, but Mr Sarkozy is an optimist, and unlikely to win the next election if today's opinion polls are anything to go by.

You see the big problem will arise if, let's say France, Germany and the UK all decide they want this tax and let's say, the rest of the world decide that trading with Europe isn't all it's cracked up to be. The £0.8 billion could be lost a lot quicker than it's gained. The traders are treading a fine line as it is with the markets as jumpy as they are, so why make it even harder for them when everyone decides that they don't want to trade with us because they have to pay for it.

And this is what really gets me about these so-called Robin Hood taxes. If you're earning more money, it ususally means that you worked very hard to get there. Why should these people get penalised for essentially working hard in what is a very tough industry. Surely we should be encouraging them; they can't strike - if they do we'd be in economic turmoil in approximately 4 minutes.

This controversial bonus that the RBS chief has now refused is an example of this. He has worked very hard to keep his bank above water this year and should be rewarded. I am, however, against a bonus like this. His salary should be more than sufficient. Maybe he should donate it to Sarkozy...

This may look out of place in an unemployment blog, but as I said before, Sarkozy wants his measures in place so that he can boost the economy and create new jobs. To be honest I'm surprised he didn't say 'create new jobs, save the children, and protect the snow leopard' - it's about as meaningful.

So I'll keep on going as I am - looking and trying things out because if we all fold our arms and don't do anything until the government steps in to do it for us, then we'd never really get anywhere because above all it's our responsibility, not theirs.