I’m concerned that a union is proposing taxes, and apparently people in the government are listening.

After the federal government put up hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out Wall Street, the largest labor union in America wants those firms to return the favor.

The AFL-CIO reportedly is promoting a proposal to tax every single stock transaction, and it’s gained some support among Democrats.

According to The Hill, the tiny tax would be about a tenth of a percent — but it could mean a lot of money for companies, like Goldman Sachs, that are making billions and conducting a high volume of trades.

Union policy director Thea Lee told the newspaper that the tax could raise between $50 billion and $100 billion annually for the federal government, but also serve to discourage “speculative financial activity.” In other words, the kind of lightning-fast trading conducted by mega-firms which critics say leads to volatility.

You know what else all that trading creates?  Liquidity.  That means that little investors like me can put in a market order and it will execute quickly at something reasonably close to the market price.  The only people the intraday volatility possibly hurts is the traders themselves when they’re on the losing side of a swing.  So what?  That’s the name of the game.

I don’t see the AFL-CIO’s angle in this.  What do they stand to gain?  How does this benefit the AFL-CIO members?

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