Saturday, March 17, 2012

Whac-a-Mole Monetary Theory ["WA-MMT"] CAUSES unemployment

WA-MMT King Bill Mitchell explains that "THE IMPOSITION OF TAXES BY DESIGN CREATES UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE NON-GOVERNMENT SECTOR".  

Government spending provides revenue to the non-government sector which then allows them to extinguish their taxation liabilities. So the funds necessary to pay the tax liabilities are provided to the non-government sector by government spending. It follows that the imposition of the taxation liability creates a demand for the government currency in the non-government sector which allows the government to pursue its economic and social policy program.

This insight allows us to see another dimension of taxation which is lost in mainstream analysis. Given that the non-government sector requires fiat currency to pay its taxation liabilities, in the first instance, the imposition of taxes (without a concomitant injection of spending) by design creates unemployment (people seeking paid work) in the non-government sector. The unemployed or idle non-government resources can then be utilised through demand injections via government spending which amounts to a transfer of real goods and services from the non-government to the government sector. In turn, this transfer facilitates the government’s socio-economics program. While real resources are transferred from the non-government sector in the form of goods and services that are purchased by government, the motivation to supply these resources is sourced back to the need to acquire fiat currency to extinguish the tax liabilities.

Further, while real resources are transferred, the taxation provides no additional financial capacity to the government of issue. Conceptualising the relationship between the government and non-government sectors in this way makes it clear that it is government spending that provides the paid work which eliminates the unemployment created by the taxes.

9 comments:

  1. Keep up the good work Bob, I'm sure someone will read your blog eventually..

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    1. Apparently Mr. Mosler visits on occasion.

      http://tinyurl.com/7yu834t

      Why don't you crank up your tiny brain and refute us?

      Delete
  2. You're a thoroughly unpleasant person. Why would I want to waste any more of my time communicating with you?

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    1. I'm sure it's my insistence upon the non-aggression principle that you find so offensive. Can't have an end to war, rape and pillage now, can we?

      You don't want to communicate with me because, like all Keynesians of whatever stripe, your brain is a convoluted mess and you couldn't understand even the most basic Austrian School concepts if you tried for months. And you know that I'll continue to call you on it.

      Delete
  3. "Can't have an end to war, rape and pillage now, can we?"

    See, I don't understand why you should think for a minute that I would want anything other than an end to war, rape and pillage.

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    1. The essence of my position is the strict prohibition of the initiation of force and fraud about which you are inexplicably hostile.

      Delete
  4. Bob i think you should change your blog title to "MMT in wonderland." You dedicate more of your time responding to MMT'ers than most austrians (myself included) have patience for. Interesting analysis, keep up the good work. BTW, seems like your causing quite a stir with these MMT posts.

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  5. I suppose you consider tax to be 'initiation of force' and money creation by government to be fraud.

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  6. Bob, that's a little extreme, don't you think? Should've said he is guilty to those things by his belief in fiat money, at least. That is if he is a Keynesian but i have no idea who he is, but apparently you do. Maybe you should link to your blog in every single comment you leave on all the other blogs you visit, like Lord Keynes, in order to draw traffic.

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