I live in the UK now. !!! I love my allotment.
I was a Senior Fellow at Campaign for America's Future, doing a lot of writing, radio & some TV.
In Silicon Valley I was in various positions at various companies. And before that I was a videogame designer at Atari & Imagic.
I was an AFSCME Chief Steward in Ann Arbor.
I am @dcjohnson at Twitter.
#ClimateChange #USPolitics #SocialJustice #MMT #HealthcareForAll #democracy #corruption #Toriesout #EndFossilFuel
| Seeing the Forest | https://seeingtheforest.com |
| MMT: We CAN Have Nice Things (MMT) | https://wecanhavenicethings.com |
| Imagine Democracy | https://democracyandcommunity.org |
| Government Cheese - chronicling the collapse of democracy | https://governmentcheese.info |
The JOB of government in a democracy is to spend & manage to make people's lives better. It is also to redistribute when excesses occur and that means taxing the wealthiest and their corporations.
Spend for the public good. They do not need to round up gold to do that. They need to manage.
Why does "the news" tell the stories of the freed Israeli hostages, but not the freed Palestinian hostages?
What happened to BOTH was terrible.
PS Why were there so many more Palestinian hostages?
Modern Monetary Theory (#MMT) explains money is created by govt, not tax "revenue" or "borrowing." Govts do not round up gold before they can spend.
Inflation is controlled by managing economies and directing resources at bottlenecks that are raising prices, not superstitiously spending too little or raising rates to harm the economy and "cut demand."
The JOB of government in a democracy is to spend & manage to make people's lives better. It is also to redistribute when excesses occur and that means taxing the wealthiest and their corporations.
Spend for the public good. They do not need to round up gold to do that. They need to manage.
US & UK
If you keep telling people your "system" - decisionmaking of, by & for the wealthy - is a democracy, then of course people are going to conclude democracy sucks and turn toward authoritarians who promise a better life.
UK austerity shows that eating the seed corn kills long-term prospects.
It makes it seem like politicians are solving problems. But eventually the seed corn runs out - infrastructure breaks down, healthcare system collapses, etc.
And then the costs of fixing things are enormous. NHS destroyed. Infrastructure crumbling. Economy stalled.
Inequality is rising with most income gains going to the already-wealthy.
If govt continues to insist spending can only come from tax "revenue" then the choice is obvious. Govt has to increase taxes on the wealthy to "pay for" NHS, pub services, infrastructure, etc.
(That also fights inequality.)
Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is an explanation of how money works.
It doesn't have associated "policies" but it does free people up to imagine what governments could do if they'd just drop the scarcity-of-money superstition ideology belief that they have to round up gold to "pay for" things.
"Cut taxes for the wealthy and their corporations. They will use the extra money to provide jobs and increase pay and benefits."
The US & UK fell for that. The UK even privatized water, energy, transportation, mail etc.
Now we have massive inequality and political unrest.
@dcjohnson Yes, I was firm believer in this market stuff in the 1970s. It seems obvious and appeals to an engineer like me.
But it's false. It's nonsense. Falling for this trick comes from ignorance. Markets are not "free", at all.
Phil Landmeier