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IMF's Property Tax Hike Proposal Comes True With UK Imposing "Mansion Tax" As Soon As This Year

Tyler Durden's picture




 

One could see this one coming from a mile away.

It was a week ago that we highlighted the latest implied IMF proposal on how to reduce income inequality, quietly highlighted in its paper titled "Fiscal Policy and Income Inequality". The key fragment in the paper said the following:

Some taxes levied on wealth, especially on immovable property, are also an option for economies seeking more progressive taxation. Wealth taxes, of various kinds, target the same underlying base as capital income taxes, namely assets. They could thus be considered as a potential source of progressive taxation, especially where taxes on capital incomes (including on real estate) are low or largely evaded. There are different types of wealth taxes, such as recurrent taxes on property or net wealth, transaction taxes, and inheritance and gift taxes. Over the past decades, revenue from these taxes has not kept up with the surge in wealth as a share of GDP (see earlier section) and, as a result, the effective tax rate has dropped from an average of around 0.9 percent in 1970 to approximately 0.5 percent today. The prospect of raising additional revenue from the various types of wealth taxation was recently discussed in IMF (2013b) and their role in reducing inequality can be summarized as follows.

  • Property taxes are equitable and efficient, but underutilized in many economies. The average yield of property taxes in 65 economies (for which data are available) in the 2000s was around 1 percent of GDP, but in developing economies it averages only half of that (Bahl and Martínez-Vázquez, 2008). There is considerable scope to exploit this tax more fully, both as a revenue source and as a redistributive instrument, although effective implementation will require a sizable investment in administrative infrastructure, particularly in developing economies (Norregaard, 2013).

We summed this up as follows: "if you are buying a house, enjoy the low mortgage (for now... and don't forget - if and when the time comes to sell, the buyer better be able to afford your selling price and the monthly mortgage payment should the 30 Year mortgage rise from the current 4.2% to 6%, 7% or much higher, which all those who forecast an improving economy hope happens), but what will really determine the affordability of that piece of property you have your eyes set on, are the property taxes. Because they are about to skyrocket."

Sure enough, a week later the Telegraph reports that UK Treasury officials have begun work on a mansion tax that could be levied as soon as next year, citing  a Cabinet minister.

"Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told The Telegraph that officials had done “a lot of work” on the best way to impose the charge. The preparatory work would mean that a Government elected next year might be able to introduce the charge soon after taking office.  Mr Alexander said there was growing political support for a tax on expensive houses, saying owners should pay more to help balance the books.

After all it's only fair. It is also only fair, for now, to only tax the uber-rich, who are so defined merely in the eye of the populist beholder. However, said definition tends to be fluid, and what will be a tax on, i.e., £2  million properties tomorrow, will be lowered to £1  million, £500,000 and so on, in 2, 3, etc, years.

And in a world which as Zero Hedge first defined years ago as shaped by the "fairness doctrine", the one word that was so far missing from this article, can be found momentarily:

“There’s a consensus among the public that a modest additional levy on higher value properties is a fair and reasonable thing to do in the context of further deficit reduction,” he said. “It’s important that the burden is shared.”

There you have it: "fair." Because there is nothing quite like shaping fiscal (and monetary) policy based on what the du jour definition of fair is to 1 person... or a billion. Especially if that billion has a vote in the "democratic" process.

It gets betters:

Mr Alexander said the new tax would not be “punitive” and insisted that the Lib Dems remained in favour of wealth creation.

So if it's not "punitive" it must be... rewarding? And how long until the definition of fair, far short of the projected tax windfall, is expanded to include more and more, until those who were previously for the "fair" tax, suddenly become ensnared by it? As for wealth creation, perhaps in addition to the fairness doctrine it is time to be honest about what socialism really means: "wealth redistribution."

Telegraph continues:

That may be a seen as a challenge to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, who first called for the mansion tax and has criticised high earners.

 

The Lib Dems and Labour are both in favour of a tax on expensive houses. Labour says the money raised could fund a new lower 10p rate of income tax.

 

The Lib Dems have suggested that the tax should fall on houses valued at £2  million and more.

 

The Treasury last year estimated that about 55,000 homes are in that range, though the Lib Dems say the figure is closer to 70,000.

To be sure not everyone is for the tax:

David Cameron has opposed a mansion tax but George Osborne, the Chancellor, is said to be more open to the idea. Most of the homes that might be affected are in London and the south-east of England.

 

Boris Johnson, the Tory Mayor of London, promised last week to oppose any move towards the tax, which he described as “brutally unfair on people who happen to be living in family homes”.

 

Some critics have questioned the practicality of the policy, asking how the State would arrive at valuations for houses.

Well, they will simply draw a redline above any number they deem "unfair", duh. As for the London housing bubble, it may have finally popped, now that all those who bought mansions in London will "suddenly" find themselves at the "fair tax" mercy of yet another wealth redistributionist government.

Unfortunately, for the UK, the "mansion tax" idea, , gloriously populist as it may be, may be too little too late.

As we reported late last week in "The Music Just Ended: "Wealthy" Chinese Are Liquidating Offshore Luxury Homes In Scramble For Cash", the Chinese offshore real estate buying juggernaut has now ended courtesy of what appears to be China's credit bubble bursting. So if the liquidation wave truly picks up, and since there is no greater fool left (you can forget about sanctioned Russian oligarchs investing more cash in the City in a world where asset freezes and confiscations are all too real), very soon London may find that there is nobody in the "fair" real estate taxation category left to tax.

But that's ok - because that's when one simply expands the definition of what is fair to include the not so wealthy... and then again.... and again.

Finally, if anyone is still confused, the IMF-proposed "mansion tax" is most certainly coming to the US, and every other insolvent "developed world" nation, next.

 

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Sun, 03/23/2014 - 05:21 | 4581931 trader1
trader1's picture

sourced from infowars?  

seriously?

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 11:27 | 4580247 Catullus
Catullus's picture

It's not "fair" that the Nuevo-rich can move into estates reserved for the higher echelons of society. They must be taxed so our established rich friends can live near us.

Property taxes are designed by the rich to prevent you from ever becoming as rich as them. It's why Warren Buffet is always for increasing taxes. It's all relative. He remains hyper rich. You're forced to sell

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 16:47 | 4580821 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

+1. I like the way you think (at the system level!): I.e., Outside the sheep pen.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 11:32 | 4580261 desirdavenir
desirdavenir's picture

ok, I know that ZH's audience does not lean too much towards socialism... but what else can be done when in countries like France tax evasion costs 40-80 billions € per year ? At least tax on properties cannot be evaded and is on residents, i.e. those who live on the territory organized by the state. AFAIK, there's no wall in western Europe to prevent people leaving, so this can't be compared to the socialism in eastern Europe before 1989...

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:02 | 4580319 smacker
smacker's picture

"...but what else can be done when in countries like France tax evasion costs 40-80 billions € per year ?"

How about lowering taxes. France has one of the highest taxes anywhere in Europe, is it any wonder people seek to evade them?

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:43 | 4580408 desirdavenir
desirdavenir's picture

you should compare the amount of taxes with what is provided for these taxes. AFAIK, a middle-class couple pays more for the same benefits in UK as in France. Lot of frenchs who go to work in the states come back a few year later when they have kids and/or start consider retirement. So I don't think the tax/benefit ratio is that bad in France... It's just that those who enjoyed the benefits when they were youngs (kindergarden and before, schools, colleges and university are paid for by the taxes) or will enjoy them when they'll be old (minimum pension, social security) don't want to contribute once they are wealthy enough. Add these costs to your taxes and you'll have a clearer view of which system is efficient and which isn't... And this is wihout even considering externalities : if a student pays $20k a year at university, he cannot fail his exams. Hence a huge pressurce on professors to ensure that most students pass at the cost of lowering the level of what is taught, for example. So a high tax rate coupled with high services is really more like a game in game theory : if everybody cooperates, everybody wins (even when factoring in the taxes). 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:13 | 4580557 smacker
smacker's picture

It is probably right to say that French public services are generally better than those in the UK because the latter are a complete shambles and exist as a consequence of past socialist dogma (eg NHS). In France, that is not an argument which supports high taxes because the services are paid for by everybody whereas only a minority of people use them (eg Paris metro and railways). If I were French (God forbid!) and living in the south of the country, would I like to pay taxes to repair potholes along Paris's Peripherique? I don't think so.

That said, there are some public services which are best financed by taxation at national level. France's problem is that the state has its socialist fingers in far too many pies which are best left to the private sector. To the extent that the French govt accounts for well over 50% of economic activity. This is why taxes are so high and why people try to evade them.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:34 | 4580596 sessinpo
sessinpo's picture

smacker         France's problem is that the state has its socialist fingers in far too many pies which are best left to the private sector.

---

Enough said. This is part of why socialism fails. Socialism is about big government and spending everyone's money (with bad results) until there is no money left to steal.

It's harsh, but the reality it's a dog eat dog world. Socialist will be sacrificed.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 15:05 | 4580649 Things that go bump
Things that go bump's picture

That is simply human nature and it makes perfect sense. Anyone with any brains would do it if they could.  

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 16:52 | 4580830 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

In Italy and maybe other Mediterranean places, prop tax avoidance has been honed to a fine art.

E.g., people leave the exterior of new homes unfinished or give them a delapitated look, just to lower the Appraisal value. Since they do not plan to sell, they could care less about the "Resale" value.

There's a moral in there for Americans, IMO.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:13 | 4580344 Winston of Oceania
Winston of Oceania's picture

There may be no wall at the present but as enough people or better stated wealth leaves he walls will go up. First will be capital controls followed shortly herefter by real walls to keep the state owned slaves working for them. Socialism is a means of control for the masses imposed by an elite.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:44 | 4580413 desirdavenir
desirdavenir's picture

Was there an exodus from the US when the higher tax bracket was 94% ? 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 15:08 | 4580653 Things that go bump
Things that go bump's picture

Those who paid 94% tax still lived better and had more than any of the rest. They weren't impoverished.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:16 | 4580354 Bear
Bear's picture

Stop spending

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 21:08 | 4581323 shutdown
shutdown's picture

Forget about it. They can't.

Walfare, wars, and the looming Big One: interest on debt. With just these three out of control it's impossible to stop or even slow the growth in government spending. Seriously. It's utterly impossible. 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:25 | 4580365 blabam
blabam's picture

HOW ABOUT SPEND LESS? FUCK.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 17:54 | 4580930 Catullus
Catullus's picture

Default on the bonds that the government can't pay. Make governments live within their means.

Maybe don't bailout people or companies

Perhaps not continue purchasing military equipment from the MIC.

But I guess this "evasion" of taxes costs SO much.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 11:42 | 4580279 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Minnesota just passed a 'very targeted tax cut' because it is forecasting a $1.2 billion surplus. Of course, the surplus is due to 'raising' taxes last year on the 'rich' and on businesses. More wealth distribution.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 11:10 | 4582247 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

Your point is?

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:09 | 4580334 yepyep
yepyep's picture

taxation is theft.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:47 | 4580418 UrbanBard
UrbanBard's picture

The rule is," Whatever behavior you want to eliminate, tax it." That is, "There are consequences of taxes."

If you tax incomes and property excessively, then the rich will move their incomes, their businesses or themselves out of your domain. People will vote with their feet and become renters. Soon, only tax exempt agencies will hold property. Britain went through this before in the 50's and 60's, before Margaret Thatcher.

The effects of heavy taxes on property is similar to rent control, in that it lowers the psychic profit which the owner gains.

If costs are perceived as too high and there are no buyers to pass your troubles onto, then the owner will milk the property by not paying for repairs until the property becomes worthless. He will, then, stage a fire to get the insurance. This is how we got ruined districts like the South Bronx, New York.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 12:01 | 4582386 Village-idiot
Village-idiot's picture

I agree with you...except...exactly what is a "psychic profit"?

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:48 | 4580420 UrbanBard
UrbanBard's picture

The rule is," Whatever behavior you want to eliminate, tax it." That is, "There are consequences of taxes."

If you tax incomes and property excessively, then the rich will move their incomes, their businesses or themselves out of your domain. People will vote with their feet and become renters. Soon, only tax exempt agencies will hold property. Britain went through this before in the 50's and 60's, before Margaret Thatcher.

The effects of heavy taxes on property is similar to rent control, in that it lowers the psychic profit which the owner gains.

If costs are perceived as too high and there are no buyers to pass your troubles onto, then the owner will milk the property by not paying for repairs until the property becomes worthless. He will, then, stage a fire to get the insurance. This is how we got ruined districts like the South Bronx, New York.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 12:48 | 4580423 UrbanBard
UrbanBard's picture

The rule is," Whatever behavior you want to eliminate, tax it." That is, "There are consequences of taxes."

If you tax incomes and property excessively, then the rich will move their incomes, their businesses or themselves out of your domain. People will vote with their feet and become renters. Soon, only tax exempt agencies will hold property. Britain went through this before in the 50's and 60's, before Margaret Thatcher.

The effects of heavy taxes on property is similar to rent control, in that it lowers the psychic profit which the owner gains.

If costs are perceived as too high and there are no buyers to pass your troubles onto, then the owner will milk the property by not paying for repairs until the property becomes worthless. He will, then, stage a fire to get the insurance. This is how we got ruined districts like the South Bronx, New York.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 22:58 | 4580447 TalkToLind
TalkToLind's picture

Good luck getting a concise definition of what a mansion is.  Heck, here in the U.S. we have something called McMansions.  It's an ambiguous term, but it basically means any house that is bigger and nicer than the one you currently live in.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 13:40 | 4580517 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

I'm OK with a flat rent revenue tax, I want to nail all the Max Stark immigrant slumlords of the world.  

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:15 | 4580560 pashley1411
pashley1411's picture

confiscation = the new normal

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:19 | 4580565 RaiZH
RaiZH's picture

And how will this really effect the "buy to let" landlords? 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:22 | 4580573 yogibear
yogibear's picture

A failing country is a good enough reason to leave.

Like the US, when all you have is a few people supporting all the leeches it's time to go elsewhere.

Money and people go where the best return is offered.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 12:05 | 4582396 Village-idiot
Village-idiot's picture

Actually, money (and people) moves to where it is treated with the most respect.

Right now that certainly is not Europe or the USA.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:33 | 4580593 americanspirit
americanspirit's picture

Will there also be a 'palace tax' on Buckingham Palace and all the other properties of the Queen? How about a tax on all properties valued at over 2 million GBP that are owned by any of 'The Royals"? Any of the Lords? Anyone with a peerage title? And how about taxing any properties over 2 million GBP owned by Brits anywhere in the world?

I''m being silly, of course. Ii is quite certain that this tax is aimed only at wealthy Russians, Chinese, Saudis, Pakis and the like.  Tax the Queen? Bonkers.

 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:42 | 4580607 Waterfallsparkles
Waterfallsparkles's picture

Maryland has proposed in Senate bill 904 that all Rental Propertys be registered with the State.  The fee to register will be 1% of the Property Value.  You must also submit your Lease to the state with one months rent for review at each Tenant change.

The amount of rent you charge will be subject to review.  Plus, any rent increases.  You must submit plans for any capital improvement on your property to the State.

A lot of wording about a landlords ability to evict a tenant.  Must be a substancial breach of the lease.

Too much to cover in a few paragraphs.  Read it for yourself. 

http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?pid=billpage&stab=02&id=s... Click on Pdf text Rental Fees - Landlord Tenant Relations.

What have we become?

 

 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:51 | 4580623 Golfjunkie
Golfjunkie's picture

Communist 

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 11:03 | 4582237 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

Oligarchial whore.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:57 | 4580629 Glasgow Gary
Glasgow Gary's picture

Excellent idea. It's time to tax the hell out of the rentier class. Everywhere. Tax them, take a big fat piece of their rents. Capital has been taxed at rates way, way below labor for a long time now. That's why we have skyrocketing inequality. 

Better, let's LOWER the tax on labor. Let's lower labor income taxes, payroll taxes. Let's also lower taxes and regulation on business formation. 

Yo, do-nothing, unproductive rentiers: your time is up.

PS: this mansion tax in Lonon will spread to other hot money cities, and will cause a portfolio shift from property to Gold among the global wealthy.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 20:37 | 4581251 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

useful tool.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 00:56 | 4581760 IridiumRebel
IridiumRebel's picture

Some folks rent cuz they cannot sell. You're a Bitchass loser who knows nothing.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 04:24 | 4581908 dognamedabu
dognamedabu's picture

You are silly. Rentier capitalism is a term currently used to describe economic practices of parasitic monopolization of access to any (physical, financial, intellectual, etc.) kind of property and gaining significant amount of profit without contribution to society.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 12:43 | 4582509 IridiumRebel
IridiumRebel's picture

Seems .gov is a perfect match for "practices of parasitic monopolization of access to any (physical, financial, intellectual, etc.) kind of property and gaining significant amount of profit without contribution to society."

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 15:15 | 4582952 dognamedabu
dognamedabu's picture

You thought he was talking about tenants. Sooo cute!

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:48 | 4580613 Glasgow Gary
Glasgow Gary's picture

The London mansion tax can't start soon enough. The city is bursting at the seams from the influx of global hot money looking to park in real estate that is *taxed at extremely low rates.* You folks here in the States have no clue how services are deployed in London--it's through the Borough Councils. And those councils need money. Also, you can dispense with the slippery slope areguments, everyone. No, the mansion tax will not start at 10 million and then work its way down to 500K. Sorry, stop scaring yourselves.

Mansion tax? Bring it on. And make it hurt, I say.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:51 | 4580620 happybirthdaymoron
happybirthdaymoron's picture

Bedroom tax...http://www.bbc.com/news/business-21321113

Every body knows theyare the main responsible for the huge financial mess... and every body knows Poor people are evils...that's why they are poor.. beats them all......before they'll beat you

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 15:13 | 4580662 Things that go bump
Things that go bump's picture

They used to tax by the room and counted anything with 4 walls and a door a room. That is why wardrobes were utilized instead of closets. 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 14:57 | 4580634 happybirthdaymoron
happybirthdaymoron's picture

Every body knows ?hey are the main responsible for the huge financial mess... and every body knows Poor people are evils...that's why they are poor.. beats them all......before they'll beat you

 

bedroom tax http://www.bbc.com/news/business-21321113

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 15:25 | 4580683 q99x2
q99x2's picture

The oligarchs are running out of money. They have to provide the military industrial complex with massive amounts of money now that their empire is in chaos. This is good news as more and more people are turned against them. It means real change is getting closer.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 15:55 | 4580740 surf0766
surf0766's picture

Fuck the IMF and anyone that supports the communist/socialist/progressive/NWO assholes who want total contol of every aspect of everyone's life.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 16:12 | 4580775 Glasgow Gary
Glasgow Gary's picture

How to tell when you've been played: when you're a small time wage earner willing to fight for the right of the 0.001% global rentier class to extract national and urban services, while paying virtually no tax. 

Consider yourself played.

GG

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 11:00 | 4582225 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

Bingo Glasgow! Reading the comments on this thread is depressing. Everybody is sympathizing with their captors.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 16:18 | 4580785 Spungo
Spungo's picture

The rich people who are dumb enough to see this bullshit yet refuse to leave the country deserve what's coming to them. Guys like Jim Rogers and Doug Casey have jumped ship because they're smart enough to see it coming.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 17:17 | 4580878 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

The first and clearest testament to the failure of government, any government, is the raising of taxes.

If government, and any one specific government, "worked" as advertised they wouldn't be raising taxes.

Taxes are theft and the increasing of taxes is the just a change in the level of theft.

 

"I support a tax on my guillotine. Let them come one-by-one to 'collect' it"

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 17:55 | 4580931 RichardParker
RichardParker's picture

Horatio Bunce summed it up best, "The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power
that can be intrusted to man."

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 20:50 | 4581277 Silver Sativa
Silver Sativa's picture

We need an "urban sprawl McMansion house" tax.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 21:11 | 4581331 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

Let's compromise. Give all the assets to the rich and all the income to the poor. If the rich want to buy anything, they can sell some of their assets.

It's the weekend and I thought I would throw in a crazy suggestion.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 21:20 | 4581349 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

UK housing bubble is now shooting for the moon, thanks to government and central bank manipulations. Housing set to rise 30% in a year. As many as 6-8 parties in all out biding wars for property. Borrowing going north to fund the bubble. Tory party happy with their handy work. Britain is drowing in debt, money printing and UK form of QE. Interest rate manipulation and subsides from the tax payer to house buyers. Insane attempt to make an economy built on asset inflation of the housing stock. Housing shortages as million of EU and illegal immigrants flood the UK. UK set to become most populated nation in Western Europe. Surpassing evern Germany in the coming decades. Schools are failing, the NHS is breaking under the immigrant floods seeking complete free medical care. People fly into Heathrow, take a black cab to the nearest NHS and say "I have cancer, where is my treatment plan". Yes, if you touch down in Britain you need only go to the NHS, foreign born or not. That nation has gone mad, and as it heads for total meltdown, the government wants a war with Russia. Putin must be laughing his ass off, Britain wants war on Russia. I suggest Cameron lead the charge across the borders and see himself vaporised by an HE Iskander Warhead. What a fucking wanker Cameron is, deluded fucking ass clown.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 05:11 | 4581924 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

Your summary fits quite well with what is happening in Australia and Canada as well.

As my father once said, "there is no law against wankers and unfortunately they are the ones that do the most damage.""

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 07:11 | 4581980 smacker
smacker's picture

Three major categories of immigrants into Britain which are at the root of anti-immigration sentiment in Britain are: a) descendants of those brought in after WWII to work on the railways and other public services, mostly from the Carribean. These are now in their 2nd/3rd generation and are responsible for much of the drug gang/gun crime in London etc b) large numbers from the Indian sub-continent including Pakistan in the years following Britain's end of empire. These have been in the news recently running prostitute sex gangs. And c) large numbers more recently from Eastern Europe who now have an entitlement under EU Treaties to come to Britain. These are taking all the low-paid jobs as plumbers etc, and of course bringing their crime habits with them.

Interestingly, the current Home Secretary Theresa May wilfully ignores all this because these groups all immigrated into Britain by successive government policy conducted without any democratic debate or process whatsoever. A fact that I pointed out to Theresa May in a letter last October when she introduced yet another Immigration Bill to con the British electorate into believing that "she" is tough on immigration.

Theresa May never replied to my letter. Instead, she is bashing away at so-called "health tourists" from other parts of the world, despite that a fair number of NHS medics claim that 'health tourism' is a tiny tiny problem which costs a trivial few UKP millions a year.

Thus, the effect of Theresa May's latest Immigration Bill will do absolutely nothing to address the elephants in the room. But it will make the life of foreign tourists wishing to visit Britain extremely difficult since her Bill requires some foreigners from selected countries to buy a Health Visa before travel. This will damage tourism into Britain as it has damaged Chinese tourism into Britain due to them requiring pre-travel Visas.

 

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 22:25 | 4581504 harleyjohn45
harleyjohn45's picture

With 50% on assistance and soon to be 80%, its turning out to be a wonderful place.

Sat, 03/22/2014 - 23:07 | 4581581 Duc888
Duc888's picture

 

 

Nice.  A hut tax for the bazillionaires.

 

Humans are a funny bunch.  You guys pay rent to live on your own planet.   Soooo....ummm, who owns the planet?

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 04:08 | 4581898 TPTB_r_TBTF
TPTB_r_TBTF's picture

Who owns the Planet?

 

Largest five personal landowners on Earh

Queen Elizabeth II     6,600 million acres

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia     553 million acres

King Bhumibol of Thailand     126 million acres

King Mohammed IV of Morocco     113 million acres

Sultan Quaboos of Oman     76 million acres

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 14:40 | 4582859 Marco
Marco's picture

A small subset of the population owns the planet.

Why how do you do it? Communism?

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 05:29 | 4581933 trader1
trader1's picture

just accept it people.  it's going to be real fun.  

one world government is coming, and it will be largely driven upon the recirculation of wealth into resource development and projects which meet several criteria (tbd).  at a high level, the governing council will focus on advancement/unification of human society, sustainment of a habitable ecosystem, and discovery of other habitable ecosystems.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 11:10 | 4582208 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

No, you haven't been paying attention and are corrupted by tribal political bullshit. Not one world government, instead a one world corporation. A world were provincial things like national identity and sovereignty are discouraged, and the flags of GE, Koch Industries, Goldman Sachs and other multinational corporations are what you will pledge allegiance to.

I'm afraid it's baked in and too late to stop. Ultimately it's our fault. Collectively we didn't pay attention and played the tribal game. We pretended that there was an economic difference between the political parties we voted for. We pretended that we were serious and aware.

Mon, 03/24/2014 - 02:25 | 4584577 trader1
trader1's picture

no one forces you (but yourself) to buy GE, Koch, GS, or any other MNC product...

marinate over some mcluhan:

 

"The Agenbite of Outwit"[edit]

Published posthumously in McLuhan Studies, Volume 1 Issue 2, January 1998

  • Literacy, the visual technology, dissolved the tribal magic by means of its stress on fragmentation and specialization and created the individual.
  • By simply moving information and brushing information against information, any medium whatever creates vast wealth.
  • Man in the electronic age has no possible environment except the globe and no possible occupation except information-gathering.
  • Man works when he is partially involved. When he is totally involved he is at play or leisure.
  • We have become like the most primitive Palaeolithic man, once more global wanderers, but information gatherers rather than food gatherers. From now on the source of food, wealth and life itself will be information.
  • As Narcissus fell in love with an outering (projection, extension) of himself, man seems invariably to fall in love with the newest gadget or gimmick that is merely an extension of his own body.
  • When we put our central nervous system outside us we returned to the primal nomadic state.
  • The ways of thinking implanted by electronic culture are very different from those fostered by print culture. Since the Renaissance most methods and procedures have strongly tended towards stress on the visual organization of knowledge.

 

The Medium is the Message (1967)[edit]

Full title: The Medium is the Message : An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore

  • All media work us over completely. They are so persuasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage. Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments. All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical. (p. 26)
  • Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perception...When these ratios change, men change.
  • Electric circuitry profoundly involves men with one another. Information pours upon us, instantaneously and continuously.
  • Environments are invisible. Their groundrules, pervasive structure, and overall patterns elude easy perception.
  • History as she is harped. Rite words in rote order. (pp. 108-109)
  • The invention of printing did away with anonymity, fostering ideas of literary fame and the habit of considering intellectual effort as private property. (p. 122)
  • Youth instinctively understand the present environment – the electric drama. It lives mythically and in depth.
  • In television, images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point. (p. 125)
  • Until writing was invented, man lived in acoustic space: boundless, directionless, horizonless, in the dark of the mind, in the world of emotion, by primordial intuition, terror. Speech is a social chart of this bog. (p. 48)
  • We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
  • The professional tends to classify and to specialize, to accept uncritically the ground rules of the environment. The ground rules provided by the mass response of his colleagues serves as a pervasive environment of which he is contentedly unaware. (p. 93)
  • All media are extensions of some human faculty -- psychic or physical.
  • There is absolutely no inevitability, so long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. [A chapter sub-heading attributed by McLuhan to Alfred North Whitehead]
  • Art is whatever you can get away with.

 

From Cliché to Archetype (1970)[edit]

  • Since Sputnik and the satellites, the planet is enclosed in a manmade environment that ends "Nature" and turns the globe into a repertory theater to be programmed. Shakespeare at the Globe mentioning "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" (As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7) has been justified by recent events in ways that would have struck him as entirely paradoxical. The results of living inside a proscenium arch of satellites is that the young now accept the public spaces of the earth as role-playing areas. Sensing this, they adopt costumes and roles and are ready to "do their thing" everywhere." (p.9-10)
  • The "tragic flaw" is not a detail of characterization, a mere "fly in the ointment", but a structural feature of ordinary consciousness. (p.45)
  • Jacques Ellul observes in Propaganda: When dialogue begins, propaganda ends. His theme, that propaganda is not this or that ideology but rather the action and coexistence of all media at once, explains why propaganda is environmental and invisible. The total life of any culture tends to be "propaganda", for this reason. It blankets perception and supresses awareness, making the counter environments created by the artist indispensable to survival and freedom. (p.77)
  • All media of communications are cliches serving to enlarge man's scope of action, his patterns of associations and awareness. These media create environments that numb our powers of attention by sheer pervasiveness.
  • Another theme of the Wake that helps in the understanding of the paradoxical shift from cliché to archetype is "pastimes are past times". The dominant technologies of one age become the games and pastimes of a later age. In the twentieth century the number of past times that are simultaneously available is so vast as to create cultural anarchy. When all the cultures of the world are simultaneously present, the work of the artist in the elucidation of form takes on new scope and new urgency. Most men are pushed into the artist role. The artist cannot dispense with the principle of doubleness and interplay since this kind of hendiadys-dialogue is essential to the very structure of consciousness, awareness, and autonomy. (p.99)
  • Disarmament is illogical and futile, unless one is prepared to regard the available means of production and social organization as affording unique social ends. To divert electrical energy and circuitry into atomic bombs shows the same imaginative power as wiring the dining-room chairs to enable one to electrocute the sitter in the event that he might prove hostile. It is part of the age-old habit of using new means for old purposes instead of discovering what are the new goals contained in the new means. (p.202)

Culture Is Our Business (1970)[edit]

  • World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation. (p.66)
  • The newspaper is a corporate symbolist poem, environmental and invisible, as poem.
  • Since Sputnik there is no Nature. Nature is an item contained in a man-made environment of satellites and information.
  • The telegraph press mosaic is acoustic space as much as an electric circus.
  • Acoustic space is totally discontinuous, like touch. It is a sphere without centers or margins.
  • One touch of nature makes the whole world tin.
  • Privacy invasion is now one of biggest knowledge industries. (p. 24)
  • The content or time-clothing of any medium or culture is the preceding medium or culture. (p. 168)
  • Chinese script is not visual but iconic and tactile. It does not disturb the tribal bonds. (p. 72)
  • The only cool PR is provided by one's enemies. They toil incessantly and for free. (88)
  • When the evolutionary process shifts from biology to software technology the body becomes the old hardware environment. The human body is now a probe, a laboratory for experiments. (p. 180)
  • Tactility is space of the interval.
  • Visual space is the space of detachment. Audile-tactile space is the space of involvement. (p. 194)
  • Audile-tactile space is the space of involvement. We lose "touch" without it. Visual space is the space of detachment.
  • The existential trauma had a physical basis in the first electric extension of our nervous system.
  • The Concept of Dread, by Soren Kierkegaard, appeared in 1844, first year of the commercial telegraph...It mentions the telegraph as a reason for dread and nowness or existenz.
  • The Eskimo, like any pre-literate, leaps easily from the Paleolithic stone age to the electric age, by-passing the Neolithic specialism.
  • As the totem pole is tied to the lineality of the missionaries' Bible, so the igloo was made possible by the primus stove.
  • Since Sputnik, the earth has been wrapped in a dome-like blanket or bubble. Nature ended.
  • Cartoons drove the photo back to myth and dream screen.
  • Color is not so much a visual as a tactile medium.

 

  • The young are really the hairs to a generation of incompetence.
Sun, 03/23/2014 - 10:59 | 4582219 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

Top that off with a new world currency. Whether by design or merely as a byproduct of globalization we have weaved a web of financial transactions that circle the globe. Over the last several years as money was printed by the central Banks it was not contained in the countries where in was printed. This money flowed across borders influencing and distorting markets and prices across the world.

Some people have been calling for a "world currency" for years. the saying "one should never let a good crisis go to waste" means a meltdown with high levels of fear would present a perfect opportunity to advance this agenda down the field. Remember many people with agendas have a lot to gain when a major shift in the currency markets takes place. More on this subject in the article below.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/02/contagion-may-lead-to-new-world-c...

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 06:37 | 4581961 theprofromdover
theprofromdover's picture

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, already has his Mansion Tax. He applies a tax on every new house and apartment building across London, just for granting planning approval. Apart from the normal property taxes for all buildings, he invented an extra charge for all new-builds, and pretends it is for schools, social housing, roads, drainage, streetlights. He even charges a sum for the guy to monitor payment. High house prices in London are made higher than the idiot Boris.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 09:44 | 4582102 U4 eee aaa
U4 eee aaa's picture

I'll bet his tax is nothing compared to the stealth tax the central bank levies every year in the form of inflation

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 08:31 | 4582042 justsayin2u
justsayin2u's picture

Anything to buy votes - hurt a few wealthy people and gain the favor of the unthinking masses - perfect.  The cherry on top are the new government jobs to be created that will most certainly vote to keep government bigger and more fully funded.  The economic death spiral will continue.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 10:44 | 4582176 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

Are you serious? Hurt a few wealthy people? My god man, have you been asleep for the last forty years? Since 2008 alone, big banks (foreign too), bankrupt corporations and the financial services industry have been bailed out in the amount of $23 trillion. That represents the greatest transfer of wealth and socializing of private debt in human history.

Forgive me if I don't shed a tear because Buffet, Soros, Gates, Dimon, Blankfein and the Koch brothers have to pay a little more for their toys.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 08:34 | 4582043 zionhead
zionhead's picture

No Rich are ever harmed, In all my years of this business, every ZIO that I know has his brand-new property registered as 'historic' making him/her tax exempt.

Only little 'riche' people pay tax, ...

In every western city in the world the ZIO's control the 'tax assessor' office, and have clever way's of exempting the tribe from property tax.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 09:41 | 4582099 U4 eee aaa
U4 eee aaa's picture

Good. They should put a tax on high end cars too. There is no reason someone needs a car that goes above the cost of transporting a person from point A to point B in relative comfort and safety. Anything above that is just shameless bragging, so pay a surtax for it. There is no reason for someone to throw away 50K on something that will be a pile of rust in 20 years. Not while much of the world starves and many children drink filthy water on a daily basis for lack of something like 2% of our income.

By the way, they should remove the tax if owners are willing to convert their mansions to apartments. They may do it anyway, just to pay the tax

Time to end the bloat, bragging and outright theft

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 12:57 | 4582563 simplejustice
simplejustice's picture

Yea,like I want the biggest share of any app. You develop, because it's only " fair "

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 10:33 | 4582160 AdvancingTime
AdvancingTime's picture

Millionaires and Billionaires, a term often used by President Obama, screams "I have an agenda", the way he uses the term is both offensive and a simplification. Only a crazy person or someone with very little knowledge of money or wealth would think that linking, comparing, and putting the two into the same class has merit.

Over the years the value of the American dollar has dropped. Across America and the world there are millions of working class millionaires. They do not have private planes or servants, they worry about their financial survival and many work far more hours then the average American worker. More on the difference in the article below.

http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/02/millionaires-and-billionaires.html

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 11:23 | 4582271 Occasional
Occasional's picture

They'll get your money by taxing your home.

They'll get your money via bail-ins. 

So the obvious answer is 'bullion' right? Until they making holding that illegal (again). 

So the next obvious step is 'hold it off-shore, and trade it with liquidity'....  

Ah, oh, how'd that work out for Germany? lol. 

BTW, on the whole bail-in thing, it's a funny notion that depositors would continue to hold deposits in 'failing' banks.  Funny at three levels based on three assumptions:

1. .....that the health of the bank is transparent. They will lie until they can lie no more, and then they will lie again. 

2. .....that the depositors would even pay attention IF banks' health WAS transparent, (or be bright enough to comprehend, if they did)

3. .... that the depositors wouldn't default to normalcy bias if banks were both transparent AND the depositor understood what it was looking at.

Afterall, it is not in the best interest of 'the authorities' to promote who's healthy and who is not. It woiuld cause a run on the bank.  

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 11:44 | 4582340 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture

"No one saw this coming...."

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 12:24 | 4582439 Village-idiot
Village-idiot's picture

The collapse of all empires essentially follow the same pattern. They are destroyed from within. In other words, they commit suicide. Europe and the USA are following that pattern.

You know we're getting close to the end-game when the government, in desperation, starts to turn on it's own citizens; stealing their money and curtailing freedoms. Towards the end, even the elite and upper-classes are financially attacked. The ruling class will do anything in an attempt to keep the system going a little longer.

Right now the rich are trying to get their wealth "off the grid". In other words they're getting rid of cash and buying "stuff". Stuff like fine art, rare collectables, gems, gold, etc. It's happening all around us, just look at the prices being quietly paid at auction houses. Prices for these kinds of items are way up and going much higher.

It won't be much longer now. Get your affairs in order to protect yourself.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 13:37 | 4582704 Mediocritas
Mediocritas's picture

When land supply is artificially restricted then land prices are artificially boosted. This is something that is rarely discussed: the policial power of Britain's large land owners (including the land of the Crown) and their desire to be "land-bankers". Britain's land-Lords have been artificially jacking prices since 1947 through restricted supply and justifying it as preservation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_and_Country_Planning_Act_1947 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_belt_(United_Kingdom)#Criticism]

We look at soaring house prices, particularly in inner suburbs, but there is too much focus on the house itself and not the land. Taking into account inflation, home-builder costs have not increased much over time, nor has the value of the actual house itself, but what has increased drastically is the price of the land.

Standard supply and demand. As demand has risen, supply has failed to keep pace, leading to the blowout in real estate prices that we observe today (more expensive, smaller lots). A lot of this is due to government restriction of land supply due to incompetence (failure to change restrictive policies), but also due to corruption (influence of land bankers on policy).

A property tax is an attempt to curb demand, which is all they ever seem to talk about. Where is the discussion of increasing supply? It seems to be soft-censored. No one dares challenge the sacred cow of "Green Zones" despite the fact that there is mixed evidence that high-density inner-city apartment living actually has a beneficial effect on pollution per capita. In some high-density areas, per capita pollution is actually increased (particularly if public transport facilities are not adequate and the packed in humans still drive cars on packed roads).

So instead of a property tax (which would often involve hitting a productive asset), how about we see more aggressive land taxes instead. Rather than land-bankers hoarding land, doing nothing with it except keeping it off-market to jack prices (like De Beers with their diamonds), how about taxing land so that unproductive use is reduced. Let someone else take it who can do something useful with it. Land tax would boost supply, leading to rapidly falling real estate prices.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 14:21 | 4582803 mumbo_jumbo
mumbo_jumbo's picture

why is taxing assets considered a solution to income inequality?  wouldn't a better solution be more income for the sheep?  maybe then THEY could pay some income taxes?

Mon, 03/24/2014 - 10:20 | 4585309 mombers
mombers's picture

"Finally, if anyone is still confused, the IMF-proposed "mansion tax" is most certainly coming to the US, and every other insolvent "developed world" nation, next."

The US already has a 'mansion tax' - it's called property tax. Unlike in the UK, there is no upper limit - it's just a percentage of the assessed value. Michael Bloomberg pays $111k in Manhattan and ~£2500 in London. Why does he live and base his business in Manhattan?

The UK would do better to have a cap on income tax, e.g. no one pays more than £100k in income tax. Houses are not very productive assets, if you are going to have a cap on the amount of tax that an activity, it should be on things that you want people to do, like earn money and/or generate profits. But somehow it is dispicable to earn a lot of money, but saintly to have a multimillion pound house...

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