Who Wants A Wealth Tax And Why?

Broadly speaking there are three types of people who want to impose and are calling for a wealth tax in Britain and elsewhere:

People who don’t understand economics.

Communists and fellow travellers who hate the rich.

A small group of people who do understand economics but are calling for one for sinister reasons.

Let’s deal with the first group first, or rather where taxing wealth leads.

Taxes are implemented for several reasons. Tobacco is taxed heavily in the UK; this is one of the sin taxes. Without discussing medical issues, which can be controversial, it is fair to say that whatever benefits some individuals may obtain from it, smoking should be discouraged for health reasons.

Taxation is also implemented to withdraw a certain amount of money from the economy. This is complicated but most people accept the idea that simply printing money leads to inflation, and can under certain circumstances lead to hyper-inflation. That being said, there is clearly not enough money in circulation at present so either not enough is being printed or we are being taxed too much. A third reason, one which is clearly visible, is that much public money is being wasted, in particular the so-called migrant crisis is causing an intolerable burden on the UK economy, and on other economies.

Excessive taxation has several undesirable effects, the most obvious one is that the wealthy are fleeing the country, the wealthy and the talented, and are being replaced by people, overwhelmingly men, who are for the most part neither wealthy nor talented, and are at times dangerous, especially to females of all ages, as was pointed out here recently. It is a standing joke that the illegal migrants who turn up here from France are doctors and engineers. Not.

Excessive taxation leads to less investment, and under this Government, to the closure of many otherwise profitable businesses, especially small businesses.

The communists and fellow travellers need no explaining, so let us turn to the sinister element. Three years ago, a limited company called Patriotic Millionaires UK was formed. According to the homepage of its website:

80% of millionaires support a wealth tax of 2% for those worth more than £10 million. They add “We’re proud to pay and here to stay”.

This begs an obvious question, why don’t they simply pay the British Government 2% of their own net worth?

Patriotic Millionaires UK is a lobbying organisation, and it is a supporter of the notorious World Economic Forum. Worse than that, its current director is Morris Pearl, an American citizen who was a managing director of another notorious outfit, BlackRock, which until recently had been pushing DEI, ESG and net-zero.

But, the most interesting name associated with Patriotic Millionaires UK is founder member Kristina Johansson, whose other talents include directorship of the Solberga Foundation. This is a small family foundation registered in the UK as Charity number 1181624, but listen to this flim-flam:

Its goals include “to tackle the climate crisis”

“Grassroots movements led by or comprised of communities of colour, low-income and indigenous people are the most affected by the climate crisis.”

Does indigenous people include the natives of these islands or are we a nation of immigrants?

“Long-term partnerships at eye level are essential to building stable movements and resourcing them to lead on climate justice...the Solberga Foundation awards direct grants to grassroots groups and individuals involved in climate activism. Regular and informal discussions with grantees help the Solberga Foundation to provide the support grantees need without the restrictions of fixed donor-driven goals.”

In other words, it funds agitators rather than say scholarships or community centres.

“historical evidence shows that grassroots movements significantly contributed to reshaping public and political discourse and influencing political decisions.”

And there’s the rub, the vast majority of these movements for “social justice” are not grass root but astroturfed.

The Solberga Foundation and Patriotic Millionaires UK are very small players in this game, but others are not. The most notorious is the Open Society Foundations (plural) whose mischief has become widely known in recent years. Foundations are tax-exempt and are therefore able to compound their wealth at the expense of everyone else.

This explains the campaign in Britain and worldwide to implement a wealth tax on the rich. Wealth taxes have been tried elsewhere and failed to improve the lot of ordinary people. The two most spectacular failures are arguably France and Norway where revenues decreased for the obvious reason, something even The Guardian concedes.

The best way to raise the living standards of all of us is to abolish usury. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.