Tax receipts are in no sense returned to the economy unless you really overload one of those words.
A modern economy works by running a printing press a little faster than a furnace, with the coefficient being (under honest and competent management) a good estimate of next year being better than this year by such and such, a self-fulfilling prophecy in a good way until you like, burn the planet via carbon emissions or some hard constraint like that.
And it’s a perfectly good system… under honest and competent management. It’s just easier to corrupt than systems with much lower potential (which is the distance between gold bug and ignorant, those folks have a point, they just rarely make it).
This is where all the 1971 stuff comes in: no rich person does anything but advantage their less-capable kid or lover or whatever unless someone is pointing a gun at them. (e.g. Altman has a job let alone unfettered power). The gold standard has a lower maximum potential risk to the extent you can stop there being a de Beers of gold. You likewise accept 50 years from the transistor to a computer in your house even if you’re fucking loaded.
The unanswered question is: can we get competent and honest leadership (after a fashion) back without the bloodshed it has required 100% of the time before?
A lot of us hope so but don’t have an answer just yet, and the clock is ticking.
A modern economy works by running a printing press a little faster than a furnace, with the coefficient being (under honest and competent management) a good estimate of next year being better than this year by such and such, a self-fulfilling prophecy in a good way until you like, burn the planet via carbon emissions or some hard constraint like that.
And it’s a perfectly good system… under honest and competent management. It’s just easier to corrupt than systems with much lower potential (which is the distance between gold bug and ignorant, those folks have a point, they just rarely make it).
This is where all the 1971 stuff comes in: no rich person does anything but advantage their less-capable kid or lover or whatever unless someone is pointing a gun at them. (e.g. Altman has a job let alone unfettered power). The gold standard has a lower maximum potential risk to the extent you can stop there being a de Beers of gold. You likewise accept 50 years from the transistor to a computer in your house even if you’re fucking loaded.
The unanswered question is: can we get competent and honest leadership (after a fashion) back without the bloodshed it has required 100% of the time before?
A lot of us hope so but don’t have an answer just yet, and the clock is ticking.