Wealth Tax: Expropriation of the Rich or Capitalist Smokescreen?
As the bourgeoisie wracks its brains for solutions to this epochal crisis, the tax lever has become one of the main tools that left reformists believe will end capitalist aggression and bring substantial benefits to the depleted pockets of the proletariat.
Part One
A spectre is haunting Europe: the ‘Wealth Tax’ (known in Italy as the Patrimonial). This joke sums up what has now become a stock demand of so many of the left , both inside and, above all, outside parliament and not just in Italy. By definition, a wealth tax is a form of taxation aimed at the rich, particularly the very rich, via a progressive rate that increases with the level of inherited wealth itself. For many this would be a measure of social justice: a means to redistribute some of the wealth that is presently concentrated in the hands of a few to the most economically disadvantaged sectors of the population. This is especially important in the