Leftist economic ideas are based on the worst human emotions, the UK edition

[Tamas]

So, the Labour Party wants to finance the NHS by putting extra tax on expensive homes.

This is one of those populist BS stuff that pisses me off. Those houses were bought from taxed incomes. So why should they be able to go around discriminating people for the kind of houses they bought?

[Valmy]

So, the Labour Party wants to finance the NHS by putting extra tax on expensive homes.

This is the UK so I presume this means every home?

[Tamas]

So, the Labour Party wants to finance the NHS by putting extra tax on expensive homes.

This is the UK so I presume this means every home?

Houses over 2 million pounds. In the area I live, that is 5 bedrooms.

[DGuller]

Those houses were bought from taxed incomes.

What does this have to do with anything?  At the store you pay with taxed income, but you still have to pay a sales tax (or vatever the equivalent is).  Your employer is paying you with taxed income.  And your employer's customers paid your employer with their taxed income.  Oh, the horror!

[Valmy]

It's taxes all the way down.

[Josquius]

Those houses were bought from taxed incomes.

Not necessarily so.
Lots of expensive property in the UK is in the hands of wealthy foreigners and lots of our wealthy take part in various tax avoidance and overseas banking schemes.

[CountDeMoney]

Houses over 2 million pounds.

Heavy.

[Gups]

Those houses were bought from taxed incomes.

What does this have to do with anything?  At the store you pay with taxed income, but you still have to pay a sales tax (or vatever the equivalent is).  Your employer is paying you with taxed income.  And your employer's customers paid your employer with their taxed income.  Oh, the horror!

Exactly. I hate these circular tax arguments. We heard it with inheritance tax ad nauseum.

However, I do think it's populist nonsense to link NHS funding to a mansion tax. A mansion tax may well be a good thing, extra NHS funding may be a good thing. But why do the two have to be linked?

In any event I'd rather a heavy tax on homes left empty for more than 6 months. Sick of my city's precious housing stock being used as a vehicle  for capital growth by furriners so well off they don't even want any income from it.

[The Minsky Moment]

There are similar "mansion" taxes in both NY and NJ.  It's a little silly as in Manhattan a very nice 1 BR apartment can cross the threshhold for a "mansion".   In any case, it doesn't seem to have hurt the RE market too much.

[Queequeg]

Like Gups said, linking these one to one is a Populist hat-trick, but taxing Russian plutocrats with 16th Century Elizabethan mansions to pay for the healthcare of poor second-generation Jamaican Brits doesn't seem like completely terrible policy or an injustice. 

[Grey Fox]

So, the Labour Party wants to finance the NHS by putting extra tax on expensive homes.

This is one of those populist BS stuff that pisses me off. Those houses were bought from taxed incomes. So why should they be able to go around discriminating people for the kind of houses they bought?

Because capitalism preys on the poor. The government is only doing it job of leveling the field.

[Admiral Yi]

Like Gups said, linking these one to one is a Populist hat-trick, but taxing Russian plutocrats with 16th Century Elizabethan mansions to pay for the healthcare of poor second-generation Jamaican Brits doesn't seem like completely terrible policy or an injustice.

But the proposal doesn't differentiate between owners who are bad people and those who are nice.

Unless you want to go full Seedy and argue anyone with an expensive house is by definition a douchebag.

[Valmy]

Because capitalism preys on the poor.

Now that the Capitalists do not use the poor for labor anymore in the first world I am not sure what value the poor have as prey anymore.  I mean I guess if you are running some sort of payday loan service or something.

[Josquius]

Like Gups said, linking these one to one is a Populist hat-trick, but taxing Russian plutocrats with 16th Century Elizabethan mansions to pay for the healthcare of poor second-generation Jamaican Brits doesn't seem like completely terrible policy or an injustice.

But the proposal doesn't differentiate between owners who are bad people and those who are nice.

Unless you want to go full Seedy and argue anyone with an expensive house is by definition a douchebag.

If they're not then they shouldn't have a problem with helping poor sick people :p

[Tamas]

Funniest thing is that this would I believe affect a LOT of poor people, as I have seen many such 5+ bedroom houses divided into house share arrangements. Will the owners cough up the tax or raise the rent to pay for it, I wonder?

And "already taxed income" IS a valid argument. If you want to punish somebody for being legal and successful, tax him/her more income tax, which is already the case btw. If the wealth was accured illegally, bring him/her to justice.