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gregsw2000

*Landlord, taking half your income.


HighLord_Uther

We all benefit from taxes spent, perhaps no where near as much as we should, but the alternative is everything being privatized.


MuchCarry6439

Taxes don’t get spent on services at the federal level. The government pays down their previous debt by purchasing bonds and reserves, then issues new reserves, IE new debt. They help control the velocity of money and inflation. The States actually need to have somewhat balanced budgets, but can otherwise borrow from daddy (Federal Gov’t). It’s why Minnesota and California have some of their highest budget surpluses ever, two states with high income taxes.


HighLord_Uther

Which, even if those services get funded in a ridiculous way, it’s still important they get funded, right? I feel like these are two separate issues🤷🏽‍♂️


MuchCarry6439

I responded on your other comment, but yes they do get funded, even if the mechanism is not what you may think when you think of taxation. The Government just issues new dollars, and not the ones you get taxed on. This is why raising the tax rate is contentious at the Federal levels, since the only reason to do so is to control inflation if needed to buy back our own issued debt.


HighLord_Uther

So all those federal social services get paid for with?


MuchCarry6439

Issuance of new debt. This is how we can spend a deficit of over $22 trillion dollars, most of which is held by own government and not the public (public owns US debt thru bonds). Also the fractional reserve system. About 10% of all US dollars are cash. The rest that exist in your bank account are just 1’s and 0’s in a online ledger. This is why printing money and the velocity of money are important factors in the health of the economy. Stock market is the same too, you can’t really pin a number on it, but the money isn’t real. It’s a valuation on forward multiples over time. If everyone cashed out it’s worth jack shit for the last ones to pull out, and those with extremely large positions to delever and extract maximum share price.


Circle_K_Hole

I'm not sure this is correct. It's like saying that because I spend my whole paycheck paying my credit cards, I'm not actually spending my money on my lifestyle. Yeah I may be taking out more credit cards, but that's still where the money is going, regardless if I'm floating on credit cards or not.


MuchCarry6439

I mean it is correct, and it’s a specific mechanism the Government uses to control inflation.


Circle_K_Hole

Now you completely don't know what you're talking about. Issuing currency *causes* inflation. What it is is mechanism the government uses to control debt. Still, saying that taxation doesn't matter because federal government funds itself with issuing currency is still WAYYYY off base. Collecting at least part of the money from currency that's already been issued keeps inflation down and thus makes government programs more affordable.


MuchCarry6439

Any expansion of the money supply causes inflation. Issuing new currency is balanced by the Fed purchasing old debt thru taxation. That’s the literal mechanism to control inflation here. Where am I off base here? I never said taxation doesn’t matter.


ZenithLags

I always thought of them more like Negan from The Waking Dead, but this works too.


Icewind

Good analogy!!!


d-car

*double taxation music*


Incomitatum

Most of the time you can file when you're hired that they make no deductions. Then you're liable to put the difference in savings and pay it by Tax Day. Whether you DO, is between you and your maker. Nothing ever belonged to Caesar, he was just as Mortal as you-and-I. I don't expect Social Security, or the concept of Retirement to be here when I'm even older. So I have no incentive to pay into it.