by Summary:
Tax is important. Just not for the reasons we think it is. Economist Dr Steven Hail tells Renegade Inc. that taxation exists to prevent inflation so some form of it will always be required to provide stability, but there are countless better ways to do it than taking away badly needed funds from people already struggling to pay their bills. “If governments don’t spend much, then they don’t need to tax much, because their spending won’t be creating inflation,” he says. “But it creates an unstable economy. In principle, you could just tax other things and not income. You could tax consumption and have a land tax.” (Dr Hail emphasises that he is not personally in favour of abolishing income tax, and advocates for a more progressive taxation system). The federal government does not
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Tax is important. Just not for the reasons we think it is. Economist Dr Steven Hail tells Renegade Inc. that taxation exists to prevent inflation so some form of it will always be required to provide stability, but there are countless better ways to do it than taking away badly needed funds from people already struggling to pay their bills. “If governments don’t spend much, then they don’t need to tax much, because their spending won’t be creating inflation,” he says. “But it creates an unstable economy. In principle, you could just tax other things and not income. You could tax consumption and have a land tax.” (Dr Hail emphasises that he is not personally in favour of abolishing income tax, and advocates for a more progressive taxation system). The federal government does not
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Mike Norman considers the following as important:
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Tax is important. Just not for the reasons we think it is.
Economist Dr Steven Hail tells Renegade Inc. that taxation exists to prevent inflation so some form of it will always be required to provide stability, but there are countless better ways to do it than taking away badly needed funds from people already struggling to pay their bills.
“If governments don’t spend much, then they don’t need to tax much, because their spending won’t be creating inflation,” he says. “But it creates an unstable economy. In principle, you could just tax other things and not income. You could tax consumption and have a land tax.”
(Dr Hail emphasises that he is not personally in favour of abolishing income tax, and advocates for a more progressive taxation system).
The federal government does not need our taxes to pay for anything, so why are we handing over hard-earned income to be destroyed when we could be spending it? Or saving it. Or paying off debts. In the current climate, with wages stagnating or in some countries even going backwards, it makes little sense to take money away from people already struggling to pay their bills for the sake of an almost permanent deficit.
As I have previously written, governments have almost always been in deficit and it is almost only during these times that the private sector has been able to save.
People should be able to have more money to spend, to create businesses, and services and goods to be consumed, and pay off the crippling amount of debt they’re putting in to keep up in an economy where even a modest salary is insufficient to keep up with the cost of living, let alone a minimum wage.
Renegade Inc.
I always admired the Scandinavian model of high taxes but with excellent public services that are so good that the public don't mind paying the taxes. Sadly, though, too many people Britain are on low wages and are maxed out with their mortgages and rents to be able to pay more tax even if they do gain more in the end. And the middle-class are maxed out with their mortgages too, so I despaired that we would ever get a Scandinavian style economy in the UK.
Then I read about Henry George and Britain's social credit movement and how back in the 1930's most people in the UK were informed about the mechanics of money creation and the problem of capitalism where most workers could not afford to buy the products they made which caused recessions and stymied capitslism. But the bankers won and buried the issue and so today no one knows about how money is made. But reading about this did enlighten me about how governments can create their own money.
Then I came across Positive Money and I was delighted by what they had to say and I felt more hopeful that we could change how our banking system works for the better, which has been captured by the elite to turn people into debt slaves. Positive Money is a ground roots up movement but many academics have got involved now.
Soon after that I came upon the lovely Michael Hudson in the Guardian online edition where he occasionally had a column. Yes, believe it or not, the Guardian used to put out some of his stuff. I loved what Michael Hudson wrote and started buying his books and then I found out about Money Money Theory which had a vast body of scientific research behind it. From here a whole new world of possibilities turned up and I saw that we could afford to have a more Scandinavian society after all. Modern Money Theory is top down movement developed by academics but it is now becoming more well known and mainstream.
Then I discovered Warren Mosler who was a very wealthy hedge fund manager who started MMT and from that I became delighted about how some of the One Percent want to live in a better society too where people are happier and less stressed. I felt we had a chance to change the system for the better. KV. Kevin.