0.05

This is a video by Bill Nighy and Richard Curtis making a short film to kick off a campaign in support of something they're trying to get done in England, the Robin Hood tax, which levies a 0.05% tax on bank transactions in order to raise money to tackle several problems, most notably poverty and climate change. It would ostensibly raise hundreds of billions of dollars a year from banks and financial giants that were bailed out by the public sector during the crisis to help support programs and policies that have taken a severe hit during the financial crisis. There are dozens of charities in support of it, most notably Oxfam, the Salvation Army, and Unicef, and Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Andrea Merkel have expressed support for it.

That's just one of the things the UK is trying to do in addition to all the stuff they've already done. Us? We're still dicking around with proposed language and imagined theoreticals for a financial reform bill, language that will have to be considerably weakened in order to finally pass. Our President has now switched into a "Hey, those banker guys are just hard working joes who earned those big bonuses" mode. In fact, I think the closet we're going to get to a comprehensive reform package is one that requires us to not make eye contact or small talk with the banks after we're forced to put our money on the nightstand after they've had their way with us. You know, if anything passes at all.

I'm not sure, which way is better?