246/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!Since those with assets abroad also hold domestic assets, their
domestic wealth can be frozen as long as the tax penalty is not paid.
If the penalty is never paid, a part of the person's domestic assets can
be confiscated and transferred into the public domain.
Similarly, in order to calculate special wealth taxes (not to be
confused with tax penalties) foreign assets have to be taken into
account.
A Redistributive Monetary Reform
A redistribution of wealth can also be achieved by means of
appropriate monetary reforms. Without going into too much detail,
one model is the kind of monetary reform carried out after the Second
World War by the Belgian government - or, on the other side of the
planet and in more recent times, by the Nicaraguan government in
- These reforms sought to tax those who, in particular, had
accumulated wealth through speculative operations. Such a model
is relevant in countries such as Congo-Kinshasa (former-Zaire) that
have to be rebuilt following the overthrow of thoroughly corrupt dic
tatorships. In the case of Congo-Kinshasa, however, the IMF and the
World Bank, intent on dictating their own conditions to the new
government, are strongly opposed to such a reform. As for the
government of Laurent Desire Kabila itself, it has decided to honour
the debts taken on by the Mobutu dictatorship. There is good reason,
therefore, to doubt its willingness to undertake a redistributive
monetary reform.
On a World Scale
The Wealth Tax Proposed by UNCTAD
In its 1995 annual report, the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD) proposes that a one-off non-renewable
wealth tax should be levied to reduce budget deficits.
Wealth taxes are levies on the estates of holders of capital; they can
be imposed the world over.
Global Finance: The Tobin Proposal for a Tax on International
Transactions
James Tobin - former adviser to John F. Kennedy, Keynesian
economist and 19 81 Nobel Prize winner for economics - has shown