Jim Audiomisc
pfm Member
So who is this Social Democrat that will revive public services plug the 20 billion pound hole and tax the rich so they don't simultaneously run off with all their money?
They would get my vote.
The question is: In what form is their 'money' (wealth) encapsilated/embodied? Quite often it is ownership of 'shares' of some kind or - quite often - real property. i.e. land and buldings. The advantage of these for the wealthy is the old "Buy land. No-one is making it any more!"
However the potential snag for the ultra-wealthy is that you can't pick up a large Scottish estate and ship it to the Bahamas!
To deal with this we need full and accurate land registration - if necessary based on laws that say the state can decide take ownership of any land whose true benficial owner(s) can't be identified and its case considered.
Scotland has already passed some laws wrt land here that England lacks. e.g. removing the old equivalent of 'leasehold' which is a plague in England. Also the great idea of enabling those who live in a community whose land was owned by a wealthy landlord to organise and get a community buy-out so the people living there can take over ownership.
So there are things we can do - despite the usual chaff thrown up by the press (owned by non-dom ultra-wealthy people).
The idea that we are powerless is one they like to promote. But it isn't actually true.
Again, a parallel with how we meekly pay international companies inflated prices for gas/oil energy rather than have ownership of *our* natural resources... and they take away the profits, leaving our children to pay the extra costs of climate change the companies dodge.