Sadly, and I mean that, I disagree. Take the bad idea that supra-national authorities had of creating their own tax raising powers. They tried the FTT (Financial Transaction Tax) or Tobin tax and nearly achieved that very very small levy on international financial transactions with even the Pope's support, but a very few were alarmed at the prospect of the UN and the EU having their own tax raising powers, so it was quietly shelved.
Now we have the UN’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Oh, it's not a tax, its a ‘global-market-based measure’ (GMBM) under which airlines are mandated to purchase units of offsets in the ‘carbon marketplace’. So that's alright then.
In 2001 and 2008, the UN rejected global tax proposals because it acknowledged it lacked tax raising powers, but it has sneaked this one in through the back door and it seems that almost no one has noticed. The principle has been achieved!
Yes, bad ideas have a really nasty habit of coming back and biting you just when you that that they had faded away.
Good ideas never die, they just fade away. (To misquote "Old Soldiers ...) That is my worry.
ReplyDeleteIt was good to read Pete North giving THA a bit of life today.
Bad ideas are the ones that fade away!
ReplyDeleteSadly, and I mean that, I disagree. Take the bad idea that supra-national authorities had of creating their own tax raising powers. They tried the FTT (Financial Transaction Tax) or Tobin tax and nearly achieved that very very small levy on international financial transactions with even the Pope's support, but a very few were alarmed at the prospect of the UN and the EU having their own tax raising powers, so it was quietly shelved.
DeleteNow we have the UN’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Oh, it's not a tax, its a ‘global-market-based measure’ (GMBM) under which airlines are mandated to purchase units of offsets in the ‘carbon marketplace’. So that's alright then.
In 2001 and 2008, the UN rejected global tax proposals because it acknowledged it lacked tax raising powers, but it has sneaked this one in through the back door and it seems that almost no one has noticed. The principle has been achieved!
Yes, bad ideas have a really nasty habit of coming back and biting you just when you that that they had faded away.
"thought that"!
Delete