I am no expert on taxation issue, but as a historian, sociologist and political scientist - but most of all as a left-wing citizen whose name is tantamount to an expletive in some circles - I feel a certain readiness to express my opinion. First, I should answer the question of whether I can recommend to a left-wing government like the Socialist-Free Democrat coalition that it introduce the kind of property or solidarity tax that several EU governments have experimented with over the past decades, trying to stem the tide of poverty brought on by gloablisation and to stop the erosion of welfare states. That is: is a property tax an effective way of fighting inequality? Or are its opponents right to say that it would just annoy the capitalist classes to no benefit, bringing few positive results in exchange for a positive gesture?

There is no doubt that the property tax is not popular with right-wing, profit-oriented governments, unless they are nationalist populists. Such governments tend to mention the idea in their manifestos and then forget about it once in power.

It was some time ago that Tibor M éray discus s ed the history of the French property tax, introduced by the Socialist government in 1981. I well remember that the tax did not bring about the kind of storm from the businessman that its right-wing opponents had been predicting. Capital did not flee the country, investment did not fall. The tax affected estates worth more than FF200m, and thus affected around 250 (super)rich families. The tax authorities calculated that the resultant revenue only amounted to about a third of the revenues lost to tax fraud. But when the right got back into power they withdrew the tax - a decision which many believe helped the Socialists back into power in the following elections.