Well if you really want to get technical about it… Accurate except that no programs or spending are really funded by taxes anyway, they government just says “OK” and the companies implementing said program have the number in their bank accounts goes up. Taxes funding things is just a myth. Taxes just delete money. So technically, nothing is funded by taxes and taxes are just a money void.
Comment on This sign says it all.
MooseBoys@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Accurate except for the “instead” part. Road maintenance comes from local taxes, whereas military aid comes from federal taxes.
Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 8 months ago
affiliate@lemmy.world 8 months ago
the wikipedia page says:
MMT is controversial, and is actively debated with dialogues about its theoretical integrity, the implications of the policy recommendations of its proponents, and the extent to which it is actually divergent from orthodox macroeconomics. MMT is opposed to the mainstream understanding of macroeconomic theory and has been criticized heavily by many mainstream economists.
i don’t think your comment properly highlights how controversial MMT is. i’m not an economist, but i don’t think it’s fair to use language like “taxes funding things is a myth” and “technically nothing is funded by taxes and taxes are just a money void”, when those claims rely on such a controversial theory.
someacnt@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
It’s not worth your time to refute one giving youtube link as a backing reference.
Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yes this is all true, MMT is a theory. It’s in the name. Yes, it’s controversial.
But those points have nothing to do with the validity of the statements I made, including the ones you quote. It’s a very broad economic theory covering how things should be done etc etc.
My point is not founded on MMT, I referred to it as a “look this stuff up by starting here”. The mere fact that this is an even remotely acceptable implies the statements I made is valid - otherwise MMT would fall apart at its seams.
Taxes funding things is indeed a myth, and they’re essentially a money void. Go read up on those specifics if you want to get into it. The video I linked has a literal explanation of this like 30 seconds later. When congress approves programs, they just allocate new funds to it, and move on. There’s no digging up taxes to point towards it.
You could begin making an argument it has implications for the validity and reliability of the sovereign currency, but it has no real relationship to taxes. That’s just not how modern economics work anymore.
masquenox@lemmy.world 8 months ago
has been criticized heavily by many mainstream economists.
In other words… it upsets the rich people that got us into this mess.
stevehobbes@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I mean this is a cute clever thing that sounds smart that isn’t.
The government pays for things. The government funds that through monetary policy that includes printing money, as well as raising money via taxes. Whether the government deletes a dollar you give them and prints another dollar vs transferring the dollar you gave them into their spending budget is super irrelevant.
It’s functionally the same and either way, your tax dollar, whether “deleted” and replaced or transferred is still your proportional allocation of funding.
This is real “I’m very smart” vibes.
Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Same could be said about your post. It’s very “haha I have a gotcha” vibes.
Yes the government deletes money. And they also create money. That doesn’t mean they do or have to do the same amount of each. They can and do create more than they delete. They’re not funding programs and then making sure they delete the same amount in your taxes. That’s not how modern economics work.
stevehobbes@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Of course not. But none of that changes the fact that your taxes, in part, pay for what the government spends money on.
For state taxes, where the states don’t control monetary policy, it’s even less true. But it’s not really true for the federal government either.
Everyone who is paid in USD or pays in USD, in addition to people who pay taxes, pay for whatever we spend money on in one way or another.
dynamojoe@lemmy.world 8 months ago
That has real sovcit vibes.
Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Not at all. Look up MMT. Modern monetary theory and economics are well beyond “spend taxes to fund programs”. Governments that issue debts in their own made up currency don’t need to “spend” money, they just give money to the programs they support.
lud@lemm.ee 8 months ago
So money goes in and gets deleted, and then they create money and they give it away?
When I think of it, I do the same thing every time I buy something.
The money in my bank account doesn’t get transferred, the bank just deletes it on their servers and then they create money and give it to the store.
tryptaminev@feddit.de 8 months ago
You are aware of the fact that central banks are usually independant institutions and whenever the government meddles with them, that countries currency gets fucked by the market?
Also in todays interconnected financial and real economy there is only so much control any government canexert iver its currency, because the currencies values is significantly determined by the exchange from imported and exported goods.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 8 months ago
MMT is techbros just trying to say, “don’t look behind the microvaluation curtain, it doesn’t matter.” But in the amounts that they’re trading on, it absolutely does matter.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s actually anarchcommunists mostly.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Sorry about all the broken veterans with TBIs. We could have invested in better healthcare infrastructure, TBI treatment research even better armor and helmets for our troopers dealing routinely with IEDs. But instead we got experimental tanks with active camo, a shitty plane which we’re phasing out and aid to Israel to perpetuate their ancient religious genocide program.
It’s just that US soldiers are poor and expendible and people with money tell us who and what is important.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 8 months ago
And there are literal laws of nature that would prevent that from ever changing.
DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 8 months ago
I mean, potholes in my area get fixed pretty quickly, because the local government takes its job relatively seriously.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Really hoping self-healing asphalt tech advances quickly in the next decade.
TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 8 months ago
That must be nice.
Test_Tickles@lemmynsfw.com 8 months ago
Except the feds also feed money back to the states to be used on things like roads.
randon31415@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Unless you have the wrong drinking age in your state.
kender242@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Underrated comment here. Federal funding in the US was used to strong arm States into having a common drinking age.