I appreciate any exposure I can get for Modern Monetary Theory. Thank you.
It isn’t really a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with your proposals. My experience in political advocacy tells me that the status quo is quite sticky, regardless of the merits of any changes proposed. Also, every change in our system offers an opportunity for corruption to seep into our processes, which is probably why the status quo is so difficult to change, even when most people are harmed by it. Better the devil we know?
MMT is simply a correct description of the processes involved in our monetary system at present. It requires no system-wide change or even minor tweaks in how money is created or destroyed. It doesn’t have to be “implemented” by any Congressional action or approved by anyone. It just is. It simply needs to be acknowledged and properly utilized to enable Congress to satisfy its Constitutional mandate to create the nation’s currency “for the common welfare”. Once enough people understand our monetary system to embarrass our Congresscritters it will be more difficult for them to use fear of deficits and debt to resist the wishes and best interests of the people.
MMT also makes the wealthy irrelevant to spending on the public purpose. When people realize we don’t “need” their money they will no longer be viewed as job creators and it will be much easier to properly tax their wealth with majority approval. Punitive taxation of wealth was the primary driver of investment in our economy in our best economic decades and is the missing element that has given us the massive income and wealth inequity we see presently. While top marginal tax rates were in excess of 90% for many of our best years, very few actually paid any more taxes than they do now. They simply had different priorities forced on them.
When faced with a “use it or lose it” choice, shareholders will become much more generous with wages to purchase employee loyalty and the government’s role in the economy will actually shrink. The wealthy, owning more wealth than they can possibly spend, will shift the definition of wealth to shareholder equity from cash reserves and Treasuries as they once did in our manufacturing heyday. We simply need to put the stick back in the “carrot/stick” philosophy of taxation to generate investment without conflating such with “revenue” for the government. Tax revenue is an oxymoron for regular morons at the federal level.
MMT also offers a logical formula for dealing with offshore production as well as AI and robotics. By disconnecting production from consumption, and taxation by extension, the term “job” can take any meaning we wish to give it as long as the goods and services are made available to purchase, regardless of their source. People can be paid for their talents, passions, and knowledge without having to satisfy anyone’s profit motive. Given such opportunities, the vast majority of people will choose to be productive and contribute their efforts to society. It is in our nature to be productive.
Artists and performers can be assured a dignified existence while following their passions, and builders can give them places to display their art and perform. Anything that benefits the greater society can be deemed as “work” and compensated. The environmental movement will likely be the biggest beneficiary as awareness of climate change motivates more people to become actively involved in its mitigation. People are far better than unregulated capitalism allows them to be. They only need to be given other options that don’t involve poverty, hunger, homelessness, and death.
Understanding that very little in macroeconomics is about money, which is infinitely available, is the first step. It is all about resource availability and allocation which is not benefitted by suffering among the people when the resources needed to eliminate it potentially exist. Suffering then becomes clearly a political decision that voters will not tolerate. With this much potential available in our current system I simply see no upside to making drastic changes, at least for now, until we have realized that unused potential.
