Socratic Economics XII: Utopian Government Finance | 405 comments (403 topical, 2 editorial, 4 hidden)

Re: Taxation DOES fund things (none / 0)

Yes, it does. But taxes also have a non-monetary purpose, which is largely ignored by MMT writers -- to secure real resources for government use by preventing private use of those resources. Government can't spend infinitely by just printing money because there are real resource constraints in time, space, and energy that have to be dealt with, especially during non-recessionary periods, so taxes are a useful way of making sure that people -- especially rich people who have more capacity to do this -- don't over-commit society's resources to private ends before the public ends can be met.

by santiago on Tue May 29th, 2012 at 12:19:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Taxation DOES fund things (none / 0)

This is not ignored by MMT writers - every time they discuss taxes, they point out that the point of taxes is to make sure that there is slack in the private demand which the government can fill by spending.

But the fact is that we (the OECD ex Japan) have been in a "growth recession" since at least the Volker Depression, more probably since the last oil shock. And the fact is that we (the OECD incl. Japan) already have sufficiently substantial tax revenues that the ability of the state to force the private sector to not-spend is not in doubt. So what happens at full employment or if you roll back taxation all the way to zero is of considerably less interest than what happens in the institutional and historical situation in which we actually currently find ourselves.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 29th, 2012 at 01:31:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Taxation DOES fund things (4.00 / 3)

This.

This, a thousand times.

I'm open to being told which fundamental resource it is that we've been short of for the best part of my lifetime that means we've been unable to even approach full employment.

But no-one seems willing to tell me.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Tue May 29th, 2012 at 02:26:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Taxation DOES fund things (4.00 / 2)

The political power to tell self-serving bondholders and their ph.d. prostitutes to fuck off and die.

Makes you want to bring back the guillotine it does.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Tue May 29th, 2012 at 03:04:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Taxation DOES fund things (none / 0)

Heads adorning the tops of wrought iron fences might be instructive, were they not the heads of those fighting the existing system.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 29th, 2012 at 07:36:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Taxation DOES fund things (none / 0)

Though either way would be instructive, TPTB would probably not choose heads on spikes as their mode of instruction.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Tue May 29th, 2012 at 07:38:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Socratic Economics XII: Utopian Government Finance | 405 comments (403 topical, 2 editorial, 4 hidden)

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