50% tax on bankers

A short interruption as we barrel toward bonus season here in the financial industry.

A fifty percent tax on bonuses over ~$40k would certainly get bankers' attention.  Britain and France both signed up, but other countries, including the U.S., have backed away.

At first, I doubted the wisdom of it, but after some thought, I find myself agreeing with it more.  (Needless to say, my banker friends would kill me.)

 The common arguments against aren't that strong, frankly:
1. it's politically motivated?  Uh, every law that gets passed fails that test.
2. it will drive people to work in other cities?  One time events don't have a big impact on behavior.
3. it will drive people to work for other companies?  See #2.  A couple years from now, this will have zero impact on people's work decisions. 

The bottom line is, we can dismiss this one-time tax as an extraordinary event, just as we justified bailing out the events because of the singular nature of the bubble collapse.

The strongest argument against it is that it can be circumvented, through delays or payments of other forms.  Very difficult to enforce.  But most people aren't making that argument.

As an issue of fairness, I see nothing wrong with it.