BF2S Forums Call for 'Robin Hood tax' on banking transactions

JohnG@lt wrote:

They didn't 'steal' anything. The money that they borrowed has been paid back with interest as of over six months ago.

It's not we who are making the childish remarks. You are the one who has claimed ignorance and in the same breath blasted things you do not understand as evil.

How is a place where you can buy and sell a share of the ownership of a company evil? That's all the stock market is. It sells bits and pieces of companies to people such as you and I so that we may profit along with the company. I buy a piece of Coca-Cola and the company does well, the value of my piece goes up. If the company does poorly, the price goes down. There's nothing evil about it no matter how much Marx and others demonized it. All the hate stems from ignorance.

I never 'claimed ignorance', whatever that means, I said it's not my strong suit. How about that? An admission I'm not an expert on something! Chances of hearing that from anyone else around here, inculding you galt, are pretty minimal.

I know how the stock market works. I also know plenty of small investors who are involved in it. Fair enough. But I'm talking about the heads of the banks, the private investors who buy up small companies and then sell them on with no thought for the workers, the disgustingly rich who keep getting richer with no thought for society, the ones who 'beneift' the country and then put all their money in off-shore accounts, the bankers who receive hundreds of thousands in bonuses while the rest of the nation suffers, and the poorest suffer the most while the value of their savings plummets and the pension funds into which they've been paying all their lives magically disappear, the ones with more money than they could ever do anything with and yet remain stolidly selfish and avoid paying tax as much as they can, while expecting the taxpayer to bail out their fuck-ups, and while we're at it the newspaper owners and the media moguls who do the same thing. Those guys, you know?

Incidentally I'd be very interested to know where you got the information that "The money that they borrowed has been paid back with interest as of over six months ago" since afaik in the UK they were bailed out to the tune of about 850 billion, of which ca. 135 billion was used for buying banking shares, and of the latter figure ca. 117 billion is still owed, never mind all the rest. so where do you get your figures? I just wonder because this amount is fantastically large - more than the entire NHS budget or three times the UK's annual defence budget.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, now owned 84% by the government, has planned (they may have done it already I'm not sure) to pay more htan 1.5 billion in bonuses to their inverstment bankers - the very ones who caused the mess in the first place! While the people who have their savings in these banks are subject to ridiculous charges and minimal security. Is this fair? No. End of story.

No-one has explained why this robin hood tax is a bad idea beyond vague remarks that 'it'll hurt the country in the end'.

And you still haven't explained why I should give a fuck about rich people living somewhere else. They don't pay (enough) tax anyway, and I dunno how they 'contribute' to the UK since they make all this money only for themselves, so they can f.u.c.k. off.

11 Bravo's comment is a great example of the selfish screw you so long as I'm OK mentality that has got us into this mess.

Duke of New York, A #1.

Last edited by Macbeth (2010-02-14 14:44:56)

ruisleipa wrote:

Banks and bankers are the scum of the earth...

No one is forcing you to use a bank.

Harmor wrote:

ruisleipa wrote:

Banks and bankers are the scum of the earth...

No one is forcing you to use a bank.

LMFAO what planet do you live on? It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to NOT use a bank here.

Cybargs wrote:

Anyway... You do realize theres a difference between a commercial and an investment bank right?

sorry I would've thought it was pretty obvious what kind of banks/bankers I'm talking about.

Do you have any answers to my questions or are you just gonna keep asking me more questions?