The Point of Tax?

The Sunday Times reports on the French wealth tax - the Impôt de Solidarité sur la Fortune (ISF).

Just how counter-productive can such a thing really be? Not only as the accountant put it, does the tax "probably costs more to collect than it brings in".

but it shouldn't even work to, as she puts it again, keep "the poor happy knowing that the rich and foreigners are having to pay.”

The reasons why the poor should be unhappy? Well, if the net gain is minimal, they won't see any improvement in services (not that they are likely to anyway, but that is another argument), and the wealthy, who could quite possibly generate more wealth for others with freely dispensed cash, are leaving in large numbers to spend their money elsewhere.

It also encourages a nasty tendency in society, (last seen in pronounced form in communist bloc countries) of spying and reporting on your neighbour and related to this, it also appears to legitimise envy rather than promoting personal responsibility and energy to solve ones own problems.

Whoops..am stopping...this was meant to be a quick link!