Grattan: Through the Looking Glass
For those still insisting government budgets must balance and money creation spells doom, it's time to wake up. Despite fancy credentials and stern warnings, mainstream economists overlook two simple facts of how money works:
1) Governments don't fund spending through taxes or debt, but by creating money at will. The idea they must 'raise funds' before spending is a self-imposed myth. Taxes and other regulations come later, to curb inflation if needed - not because of inherent financial necessity, however much you claim governments are like households and insist 'niche' ideas recognize inconvenient complexities your dismissiveness ignores.
2) Whether policy goals are affordable depends on real resources available, not arbitrary financial limits. If labor and materials exist for public purpose, money creation under inflation monitoring can achieve this - not doom society as you cry in dismissing possibility outside illusory bounds. Inflation depends on balancing the economy for opportunity and taxing excess, not your credentialed warnings of 'unbridled monetary financing' as only way to prevent politicking you claim calls for detailed plans to bind power your position accommodates.
Hate to interrupt the dire warnings and credentials, but for those preferring economic reality: stop the austerity theater. Governments aren't 'out of funds' - they make money at will, taxation & other policies coming later to control inflation. If real resources allow public purpose, money creation enables it - not your insistent desire for particular institutions that binds spending to scarcity for its own sake.
The choice is yours - stop the warnings and wake up to monetary sovereignty and possibility if you grasp it. Or keep giving 'experts' something to point to while communities suffer under the myth funds must be 'raised' before investing in thriving societies. Your move!
There is more content below for Paid Subscribers!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Sociocultural Australis to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.