Wednesday, September 2, 2009

AFL-CIO, Dems push new Wall Street tax

Unions and Democrats want to tax stock transactions.
The nation’s largest labor union and some allied Democrats are pushing a new tax that would hit big investment firms such as Goldman Sachs reaping billions of dollars in profits while the rest of the economy sputters.

The AFL-CIO, one of the Democratic Party’s most powerful allies, would like to assess a small tax — about a tenth of a percent — on every stock transaction.

I guess a consumption tax is better than a tax on money earned. However, if you tax something you get less of it. Do we really want to discourage investment in our economy? Besides, what if your investment loses money? There is no guarantee that you will make money on a stock you purchase. How many people will line up to buy stock, that they might lose on, to only pay a tax on that loss? Not many.

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