Abstract
This chapter proposes a policy to tackle the problem of global poverty, the Global Luxuries Tax (GLT). The GLT is a levy collected whenever a person, anywhere in the world, purchases a certain luxury good or service. The money collected will go towards a Global Poverty Fund to be used to alleviate the worst cases of global poverty. The tax is a miniscule percentage of the price of the good or service being purchased, so that the GLT raises money for the Global Poverty Fund by virtue of the high number of transactions taking place. The first part of the chapter will highlight two main pitfalls faced by any potential solution to the problem of global poverty, the Unintended Consequences Objection and the Implementation Objection. The second and third parts will introduce the idea of a Global Luxuries Tax, first in theory and then in practice. Examples of luxuries to be taxed by the GLT include air travel, financial transactions, texting on mobile phones, and procreation. In the final part some objections to the GLT will be considered, and appeased.
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Notes
- 1.
The same intuition can be found in Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice, written in 1795.
- 2.
Two other factors mentioned by the World Bank are adverse weather conditions and Asia’s strong demand for food imports.
- 3.
The World Bank. Press Release No:2012/411/PREM.
- 4.
For a defence of the opposite view, namely that past wrongs should not be rectified, see Perez (2012).
- 5.
According to Thomas Pogge $ 506 billion per annum would suffice to help the 3.08 billion people (47 % of world population) who currently live below $ 2.50 per day. See the interview with Pogge on Policy Innovations, 31 May, 2011: http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/briefings/data/000201.
- 6.
The history of the concept of taxation, and the justice of a progressive taxation, are perfectly captured by Helmut P. Gaisbauer, Gottfried Schweiger and Clemens Sedmak (2013).
- 7.
The idea of air-ticket taxation to pay for climate change has been raised before. The International Institute for Environment and Development calculates that a small tax of just US$ 6 per economy-class ticket and US$ 62 for business class tickets could generate as much as US$ 10 billion. See Tom Birch and Muyeye Chambwera, ‘Fundraising Flights: A Levy on International Air Travel for Adaptation’, IIED, March 2011.
- 8.
For an endorsement of the Tobin Tax, see Brock (2008).
- 9.
There is of course a serious problem with relying too much on GDP as an indicator of poverty, especially in poor countries – see Morten Jerven, ‘Lies, Damn Lies and GDP’, The Guardian, 20 November 2012.
- 10.
‘Digital Revolution Lights up Africa with Maps, Mobiles, Money and Markets’, The Guardian, Tuesday 30 October 2012.
- 11.
‘Africa’s Apps: Farming to Gaming’, The Guardian, Tuesday 30 October 2012.
- 12.
RTE News, Tueday 26 September 2006.
- 13.
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Mawe, T., Bufacchi, V. (2015). The Global Luxuries Tax. In: Gaisbauer, H., Schweiger, G., Sedmak, C. (eds) Philosophical Explorations of Justice and Taxation. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 40. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13458-1_13
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