talkmagic.co.uk

Hope you don't mind mods. Little bit of politics, but it's people politics.
Hate banks? Well who doesn't? Here's one small way they can atone for the huge mess we are all in.

http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/

gillows wrote:Hate banks?

No, they pay my salary.

This is a nice idea in theory however it will not work, not on the basis that the tax could not be levied, it could, but the consumer will always end up paying. A bank is a business and like any other business it will pass on extra costs, direct or indirect, to the frontline consumer, it is how a business model works.

The other problem with this is the way in which the tax money will be spent. Great again in theory however we have to trust the government to appropriately spend funds... not something they are renowned for. A good example of this is the "green tax" on commercial flights, the tax is levied but the money disappears in to the ethos and appears to have no impact on the area it is supposedly being levied for.

I happen to know a reasonable amount about the trades they are looking to tax and I can guarantee the banks will not foot the bill directly. If they are losing £100bn through this tax they will reclaim £100bn through their customers, and probably their front line staff by giving less benefits, lower pay rises and smaller bonuses.

Also you'll have to get the big US banks on board for it to work effectively, not something I see happening without a huge amount of resistance.

As I said, nice idea though.

^ Agreed. And even if they did it would only be recouping some of the money they got from the massive bailout. I think it's really all about making them squirm a bit.

I really wish it were possible to make the banks squirm but I do not think it is.

The major problem is they are too big. The people at the top live in a different world to the rest of us, similar situation to the MP's but on a grander scale.

How do you police and control any company that crosses international boundaries without having a global force to police them and when you have an entity of that size how do you stop them from influencing the regulators?

The only people that will be made to squirm are the people who work with the public, they will receive abuse and jibes about things they had no control over. I'm not talking about me here, I'm quite fortunate so do not receive much flak in the role I do but many of my colleagues who work throughout the bank receive abuse because of campaigns against the banks like this.

It's akin to shouting at a bin man "You only have a job because of me, Gordon Brown is a c*ck."

The bin man is likely to agree with you, even though, indirectly, Gordon Brown is his ultimate boss.

Of course a real "Robin Hood tax" would be taking the money away from the tax collectors and giving them back to the people who earned them.

It may have been the case that some thought all bank workers were somehow implicated, but I think most now know enough to see it was the "Masters of the Universe" punting, unchecked with our money down at the bookies that did the real damage.

A_n_t wrote:I really wish it were possible to make the banks squirm but I do not think it is.

We have more power than we think. If everyone threatened to withdraw their savings and cash deposits for a day they would sit up and listen. At the moment they just rely on apathy and fear to keep the status quo. I don't believe there is not a better way to run economies. The people at the top just need to be persuaded to change by the real masters.

As someone who works in the financial sector I'd like to pu the following points forward.

Not all of the banks and financial institutions have acted irresponsibly. It's true that a few have and that they have racked up billions of debt but overall these still account for only a few, despite their big names.

Secondly, banking is divided into retail and investment sectors. Some banks have both while others specialise in one area alone.

The vast majority of staff working in the retail banks are like you and I. They are employees on a salary that's not particularly hight that rely on an annual bonus of a few hundred pounds after tax to make up their wages. They take the grief from customers, almost always unfairly and are the ones that pay for the mostakes made at the top through branch closures and redundancy.

It's the minority that have been greedy so please spare a thought for the many who have no part in what has happened. Just because you work for a bank - it doesn't mean that you're a banker.

A_n_t wrote:I really wish it were possible to make the banks squirm but I do not think it is.

Actually, that may not be true. There is an emerging group of people who are using the commercial technologies the banks use against them.

This website has lots of info about commercial and constitutional law. Of particular interest is the series of notices sent by the author to a bankster in which he uses the bank giro credit slip sent with his bill (which is a remittance - a form of currency under commercial law) to pay his bill.

For those who are interested in further research I would suggest you look at The Bills Of Exchange Act 1886.

dat8962 wrote:As someone who works in the financial sector I'd like to pu the following points forward.

Not all of the banks and financial institutions have acted irresponsibly. It's true that a few have and that they have racked up billions of debt but overall these still account for only a few, despite their big names.

Secondly, banking is divided into retail and investment sectors. Some banks have both while others specialise in one area alone.

The vast majority of staff working in the retail banks are like you and I. They are employees on a salary that's not particularly hight that rely on an annual bonus of a few hundred pounds after tax to make up their wages. They take the grief from customers, almost always unfairly and are the ones that pay for the mostakes made at the top through branch closures and redundancy.

It's the minority that have been greedy so please spare a thought for the many who have no part in what has happened. Just because you work for a bank - it doesn't mean that you're a banker.

What he said.

I wish we had a spell checker having only just re- read the post

We are more likely to use the 0.05% levy to invest in the army and the crusade against terror. hypothecated taxation, anyone?

Do you guys have credit unions over there? They're an alternative to banks.

^ We invented them.

They went out of fashion but are making a comeback in some areas. The main problems are loan sharks are filling the void left by banks pulling out altogether from deprived areas, and these new types of credit shops selling household goods at greatly inflated prices on the never never.