How is this for a tax idea. I have noticed since

[doc03]

Internet trading on stocks the transaction fees have dropped to practically nothing. A few years ago it cost about $50-$75 to buy or sell a hundred shares of stock. Now Vanguard charges me $7 per trade and other companies charge $3. It seems to me all this does is encourage day trading and short term speculation. I think there should be a substantial tax like maybe $40-$50, that would still be less than investors used to pay on trades. I think that would encourage people to invest for the long term economy rather than the next day.

[Dr Morbius]

1. It's been mentioned. Our Corporate Overlords Won't Allow It.

[aquart]

2. Who got the transaction fees?

In my world, the broker did. Not the government.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. A transaction tax...

...gets proposed every Congress.

US Rep. Chaka Fattah is the man behind the plan.

[doc03]

4. Interesting, thanks for the link. The thought just occurred to me

this afternoon when I was thinking of selling a stock I bought about a year ago when I paid Vanguard $35. Since then they have lowered their rates to $7 to compete with all the Internet traders that charge as low as $3. He only wants to charge 1% and it would eliminate the debt in 7 years and wouldn't even include stocks, sounds like a no brainer to me, of course the Repugs would say it would be the end of the world. Sounds preferable than cutting SS and Medicare.

[dkf]

5. Mom and pop already are bailing out of the market.

Why do we want stocks to be more inaccessible to them through high fees?

[Dr Morbius]

6. Why do we insist that all investment has to go through the stock market?

The more "Mom and Pop" invest in the "market" the greater the corporate hegemony over the global economy.

Further, explain please how a tiny increase in percentage costs - a lousy one percent - equates to "high fees."

[dkf]

8. Where else are you supposed to put your savings?

All savings feeds the corporate beast. The only way to not participate is to be poor and broke.

[doc03]

9. After that government transaction fee of 1% the cost of

trading stocks would still be far less than they were a few years ago. Mom and Pop are not bailing out of the market because of any high transaction fee. You can now make unlimited stock transactions for $3. I remember when I first traded stock way back in the 70s it cost $50 or more depending on the price of the stock. Mom and Pop are bailing out of the market because it is so volatile mainly because of day traders and short term speculators.

[PoliticAverse]

7. Short term vs long term capital gains.

Encouraging investing vs speculating is what the difference in the long term vs short term
capital gains tax is suppose to do. Profits from stocks held more than a year are taxed at
a lower rate.

http://taxes.about.com/od/capitalgains/a/CapitalGainsTax_2.htm

[doc03]

10. They could also charge people a higher fee for short term

trades. That isn't the point anyway, if people were willing to to pay $50 a few years ago to trade stocks and it only costs $3 today it wouldn't crash the economy if they paid $10 or so tax on the trade if you could eliminate the debt in 7 years without cutting SS and Medicare.