At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September, French president Jacques Chirac was on hand to support a variation of a global tax on wealth generated by globalization.
Reuters quoted an anonymous source as saying that this globalization tax,
It could be a tax on airplane tickets, on carbon dioxide, on health products sold in industrialized countries, and indeed on international financial transactions. . . . The idea of wanting to hold back a small share (of global wealth) to relieve poverty is not a mad idea at all.
The idea of a global wealth tax may not be mad but it is definitely stupid. When are these people going to realize that the problem is not that taxes are too low in the developed world, but rather are far to high in the developing world. Rampant corruption, undemocratic regimes, excessive militarism, lack of a free press — these are the factors that are currently taxing developing countries to death.
What the developing world needs is a way to repeal these taxes that are dragging down their economies. Do that, and the developing world won’t have to obsess over such bizarre schemes as a global wealth tax.
Source:
Chirac to back “globalization tax” talks. Reuters, September 2, 2002.