Today marked the launch of the Robin Hood Tax movement in America. Their plan, strongly supported by the UK’s Occupiers calls for financial transactions tax to generate revenue to invest in jobs, health care, housing and education. Activists have successfully put the concept on the table in Great Britain and elsewhere, now the’re aiming to do the same in the USA. Via Mother Jones:

According to a press release from the campaign, a 50-cent tax on every $100 of stock trades could generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually. (The rate could be even lower on other financial transactions.) Over 1,000 leading economists have endorsed the idea of a financial transactions tax, including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs and Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute.

The notion of a tax on stock trades and other financial transactions is not new—in the United States, the federal government taxed every sale or transfer of stock between 1914 and 1966. But in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the idea has gained new support—especially overseas. German chancellor Angela Merkel recently said a financial transactions tax would be “the right signal to show that we have understood that financial markets have to contribute their share to the recovery of economies.”

Ya think, Chancellor?

As one of the commentors on Mother Jones quipped:

“A half of a percent? Shoot, why should food be taxed more than betting on it?”

Here’s the viral video made by Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy about the Robin Hood Tax. It’s pretty effective at getting its point across—give it 3 minutes, you won’t regret it: