Taxes are pointless when you can print money.

[bergmann620]

Reading another thread... It hit me.

Why the fuck do we waste time collecting taxes, arguing about tax rates, deficits, etc? Why do we bother with all the bullshit surrounding our gigantic, retarded tax structure? All we're doing is shuffling paper.

What is the difference between collecting X% of the GDP in taxes, and simply printing X% of the GDP to pay for the expenses of the government? We pay our taxes in made-up paper money that has virtually zero intrinsic value. Why does it matter if we give the government some of it back, or if they print their own?

[Rukentuts]

Inflation.

[Tyrgannus]

Think of a debt as a percentage of the "made up paper money", albeit a small percentage. Making more money does not change the percentage.

[Linkedblade]

Too bad the people that print the money aren't the same people that decide the taxes.

[Deleted]

http://lee.org/blog/wp-content/uploa...ll-obverse.jpg

Because you end up with this.

[Tradewind]

Because you do this for long enough and eventually your bills end up looking like this:

[DarkTZeratul]

Inflation.

Oh good, I would have been really worried had this not been answered in the first post.

[Stonecloak]

So when is the bubble going to pop already? The federal reserve is tied to debt. The more money made the more debt. It's not going to end.

[Deleted]

Germany tried the same thing after WW1.

[Rukentuts]

Germany tried the same thing after WW1.

<snip>

It's why most of them just used the money as fuel for fires.

It's almost like the situation the US penny is in. Ignoring the whole federal crime thing, I could melt down a penny for its copper and gain more value than a cent.

[Sekhmet]

have some German stamps from the time between the world wars.. The biggest one I got is for 10 million marks. People were using stamps to trade for food rather than bills because they were less bulky. You could need a wheelbarrow to carry the bills if you wanted to go shopping.. Thats why just printing more cash isn't the best plan.

[tachycardias]

Basic economics.

[Goosfraba]

Inflation.

And the thread is basically over. Well done, Rukentuts.

OP Look up 'quantitative easing' and 'hyperinflation zimbabwe'. "Money printing" is not exactly just what it sounds like. The Fed (federal reserve, not federal government) has a dual mandate to stabilize prices and maintain low unemployment. So why would they agree to easing, unless it was absolutely required because some outside force was making it impossible not to? -> The people who are spending are the ones with the 'power of the purse' in the House. If we want to appoint blame for anything, there's our target.

I choose to blame our government problems on the apathy of the people when it comes to elections and voting with dollars. And the lack of waffles at breakfast. Too much pancake, not enough waffles.

The more you know! *

(edited for clarity)

[darxide]

Basic economics.

So many people just don't even understand the basics. It's quite sad, really.

[Deleted]

Lol... Wow... Just wow. You weren't the smartest were you? LET'S PRINT MONEY FOR ALL OF US SO WE'RE RICH!

Do you even know where money stands for? Maybe watch that South Park episode about the aliens bringing ''space money'', you can learn a lot from that.

Keep it civil

[bergmann620]

Inflation.

(And yet, we're told that inflation doesn't matter when we print money now.)

I don't see how "Your money is theoretically worth 20% less" is that much different (or worse) from "You have 20% less physical money in your hand."

Are you arguing that inflation would run rampant and exceed the (mathematical) 20% inflation this could potentially cause (assuming we funded the government at current levels relative to the GDP)? If anything, general apathy toward policy amongst the populace would result in real inflation being lower than the mathematically correct level of inflation.

It's not like we're on a standard- a dollar is worth what 'we' think it's worth.

[Rukentuts]

It's not like we're on a standard- a dollar is worth what 'we' think it's worth.

We are on a standard. The dollar is worth x Euros, y Yen, etc. and a % of the US GDP.

[melodramocracy]

"Taxes are pointless when you can print money."

Banks think so too

[Aerna]

Because governments would rather have taxes AND print money.

[Djuntas]

OP watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNu5ppFZbHo Not a troll link, good TED stuff.

basicly: Think money as gold. If to much gold is inn circulation, it losses its value...Okay thats simple but yea.