From the Massachusetts Nurse Newsletter
July/August 2012 Edition
On June 16, dozens of nurses and activists rallied outside the office of J.P. Morgan in Boston as part of a nationwide effort to call for a “Robin Hood Tax.” Participating in the event were members of the MNA/NNU, the Maine State Nurses Association, Jobs With Justice of Massachusetts, Health Gap, Act Up Boston, United for a Free Economy, Verizon/IBEW Local 2222, and the AIDs Action Coalition.
MNA members joined with other activists outside the Boston office of J.P. Morgan to call for a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on stock trades. | |
The event took place the same day that J.P. Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon appeared before Congress to explain his firm’s massive trading loss and related frenzy of speculative trading. The proposed Robin Hood Tax is a small sales tax, less than half of 1 percent—or 50 cents per $100—on trading in stocks, and even smaller assessments on bonds, derivatives and currencies, that could raise billions of dollars in the U.S.
“Wall Street’s reckless speculation and risky deals caused our economy’s most devastating crash since the Great Depression, forcing millions of Americans to lose their jobs, their homes, and their pensions,” Paula Ryan, an RN at Quincy Medical Center and a member of the MNA Board of Directors, said at the event. “Three years later, Americans on Main Street still struggle to recover from a crisis we didn’t create. This is the way to start to turn it around.”
More than 1,000 leading economists have endorsed the policy behind the Robin Hood Tax, including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute. And over 40 countries have a Robin Hood Tax or the equivalent in place already.
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