I’m not going to pretend I’m an economist, but the idea that the government prints money is not new to me. If the government is “funded” via destroying money (because there is an inflation rate they are attempting to keep constant meaning they can spend X for every Y they destroy) then taking in “funding” via tariffs allows them to either print more money to make up for the additional “income” (aka increased government spending ideally on the public good) or need less money from other sources (lower other taxes - not how it happens but theoretically a possibility), or apply that “excess” to the debt (basically print directly to the debt holders). This does not make taxes or tariffs irrelevant. It is the way the government is “funded” since it needs income to maintain inflation. Is this not a correct reading? I’m legitimately open to learning something right now, but replacing “spend” with “print” and “tax” with burn does not really affect anything considering inflation is a constraint. I understand it’s not 1:1 but that does not mean taxes are “disappeared” in any meaningful sense in this context.
It’s a very meaningful difference, because these two things (spending and taxing) aren’t actually related
Think of it like watering a plant. Watering is spending, and taxation is drainage. What actually matters is how wet the soil is
Our problem isn’t the spending, it’s that the drainage is bad. We have too much stagnant money. No amount of watering or not watering could fix that… The plant still needs water, even as mold in the bottom of the pot hurts the plant
Generally, taxes are drainage. As money moves around, a little bit drains out of the system at each step
Tarrifs aren’t drainage, they’re flow restrictiors. They reduce the amount of money moving around, which doesn’t help the situation
It’s not a perfect metaphor, but to strip it all away - the problem is that billionaires and speculation are collecting money in massive hoards, and the velocity of the money is zero
The actual health of an economy is the velocity of money, the amount in the system is secondary
I’m not going to pretend I’m an economist, but the idea that the government prints money is not new to me. If the government is “funded” via destroying money (because there is an inflation rate they are attempting to keep constant meaning they can spend X for every Y they destroy) then taking in “funding” via tariffs allows them to either print more money to make up for the additional “income” (aka increased government spending ideally on the public good) or need less money from other sources (lower other taxes - not how it happens but theoretically a possibility), or apply that “excess” to the debt (basically print directly to the debt holders). This does not make taxes or tariffs irrelevant. It is the way the government is “funded” since it needs income to maintain inflation. Is this not a correct reading? I’m legitimately open to learning something right now, but replacing “spend” with “print” and “tax” with burn does not really affect anything considering inflation is a constraint. I understand it’s not 1:1 but that does not mean taxes are “disappeared” in any meaningful sense in this context.
It’s a very meaningful difference, because these two things (spending and taxing) aren’t actually related
Think of it like watering a plant. Watering is spending, and taxation is drainage. What actually matters is how wet the soil is
Our problem isn’t the spending, it’s that the drainage is bad. We have too much stagnant money. No amount of watering or not watering could fix that… The plant still needs water, even as mold in the bottom of the pot hurts the plant
Generally, taxes are drainage. As money moves around, a little bit drains out of the system at each step
Tarrifs aren’t drainage, they’re flow restrictiors. They reduce the amount of money moving around, which doesn’t help the situation
It’s not a perfect metaphor, but to strip it all away - the problem is that billionaires and speculation are collecting money in massive hoards, and the velocity of the money is zero
The actual health of an economy is the velocity of money, the amount in the system is secondary