Guess What Will Never Happen: A Sales Tax on Wall Street Transactions?

By NANCY FOLBRE Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Most of us pay state and local sales taxes on most things we buy, and

most casino gambling is subject to state taxes ranging from up to 6.75

percent in Nevada to 55 percent on slot machines in Pennsylvania.

 Everyone ELSE pays taxes, mate...

But speculative purchases of stocks, bonds and other financial instruments in the United States go untaxed but for a tiny fee (less than a half-cent) on stock trades that helps finance the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In Britain, by contrast, a 0.5 percent tax on stock transactions raises about $40 billion a year. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany recently announced plans to introduce a similar tax in the 27 nations of the European Community.