I’m sharing this here because Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) came up in a Facebook discussion and I didn’t want to derail it.

Here’s fun aspect of paying for federal government

If you agree with MMT, that’s not a direct concern. The government can’t run out of money, because it defines what money is. It’s the same reason football season never has to stop when the NFL runs out of points.

But the NFL can have too many points. The game will start to suck if you start with a lot of points and touchdowns are worth fifty and field goals are just whatever.

Likewise, the economy can have too many dollars in it.
You don’t want a system in which gas costs $3.00 today and $300.00 tomorrow and the person who grabs it all first suddenly owns everything that matters and the people who saved their money get ripped off.

That’s what federal income tax is for.

It’s not to raise money for the government, it’s to regulate demand so people feel like investing and deferring purchases. Money isn’t real; it’s a game that’s designed to get you to act a certain way.

You might have a neighbor who’s all Red-Statey and contrary who says “Government doesn’t need my money, it just wants to take it away to keep me broke.” He’s kind of right though.