Tax Policies, Redistribution, and Social Welfare

Tax policy should be designed as an instrument for redistributing wealth within societies and ensuring social protection. At government level this means that defining economic policies in general should no longer be done to the advantage of financial markets, but as a function of social values decided democratically. Experiments such as participatory budgets are the sparks needed to set such changes in motion. Tax receipts should be managed equitably and transparently, and be based for the most part on revenues generated from capital, wealth, profits and consumption. The system should be very progressive, with more pressure put on influxes of capital and wealth, and by reducing tax on work, work generated revenue and items of popular consumption. For the countries of the South, settling the debt is the vital condition for putting these reforms into practice and democratizing the public budget. This should strengthen public social protection systems, the only systems capable of fair social distribution, but now facing competition from private insurance systems.

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