[marcosdumay]

> on things other than profits

Well, profits or VAT. Even more if you make some actually sane VAT that discounts all VAT paying expenses and all labor expenses.

I'm not sure any VAT on the world fits that description, but it is the one way to make them work as well as profit taxes, but as easy to tax as any other VAT.

[rsynnott]

Yes, fair, VAT done right would have a much lower (though still non-zero) impact than transaction taxes.