[afro-nets] Five Nations to Tax Airfare to Raise Funds for AIDS Drugs (2)

["Peter Burgess" <profitinafrica@gmail.com>]

Five Nations to Tax Airfare to Raise Funds for AIDS Drugs (2)
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Dear Colleagues

Fund raising is very important ... but how it is done should be appropriate.

The recent announcement of taxes on airfares is not, in my view, an appropriate tax, though it is politically expedient. The airline industry is heading into a crisis, and it is more than likely that airlines are going to require significant subsidy to stay operating and safe ... not a good time to be putting a substantial tax on the revenue of airlines.

A far better tax would be a tax on agricultural subsidy ... if there was a 50% tax on all agricultural subsidies paid into an international fund for relief and development, then there would be some serious fund flow available for good work.

Another good tax would be a tax on all international trade in military equipment and supplies ... that would generate some good money, and offset the nastiness of this trade.

But neither of these are going to happen ... sad really.

Since we absolutely must have a decent amount of money to address health issues ... the tax on airfares is better than nothing. But it is still a cop-out on the part of "north" political leaders who don't seem to have a mandate to simply increase fund flows into relief and development from their unbelievably bloated government budgets.

Peter Burgess
Transparency and Accountability Network
The IMMC Consortium
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com