Archbishop of Canterbury and the Tobin Tax

The news today reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury backs the introduction of the so called Tobin Tax on financial transactions.

Apart from the fact that I strongly believe that church and state should be totally separate, has he considered the implications of the tax?

I suggest he has not fully thought it through. 

For starters, a tax on trading will be payable by the church on all the transactions it carries out in this field.  Those managing the church investment portfolio will perhaps then look to trade in countries which are not subject to the same taxation, which may well be where many of the financial institutions from the City of London decide to relocate also.

Secondly, the proceeds are supposed to go to helping fund social projects and investments.  We have all seen from the lottery that many so called good causes are anything but.

Finally, what will be the cost of administering all this.  I remember in the days of CB radio, the government freely admitted that the cost of issuing and tracking licenses far outweighed the revenue earned from them - hence nowadays CBs are licence free.  Someone somewhere has to pay for another group of bean counters to administer this.

You've guessed it.  The taxpayer will pay but no one will really benefit!