georgephillip
Diamond Member
What's your understanding of MMT?
Modern Monetary Theory and Taxing the Rich
"I don’t consider myself an MMTer, but there is a basic Keynesian concept which has been associated with MMT, which is both true and important.
"For the federal government, taxes are not about raising revenue, taxes are about reducing consumption to prevent inflation.
"The point is that the federal government does not need taxes for revenue, since it can just print money. It instead taxes to create the room in the economy for government spending.
"This view is sometimes wrongly taken as a “get of jail free” card, where the government can spend whatever it wants without worrying about raising revenue."
A Green New Deal that provides enough livable wage jobs to soak up our current excess capacity will not necessarily lead to inflation as long as those working those jobs consume goods and services.
The purpose of government is overhead. the purpose of taxes is to fund that overhead.
True keysean economics has never really been tried because coupled with the deficit spending during contraction periods is supposed to be paying down the debt during expansion periods.
And people talking about government removing "excess capacity" remind me too much of the principles of government in 1984.
Hyperinflation is proof the government CAN'T just print money.Simon Patten was the Wharton School of Finance and Economy's first professor of economics in 1881; his view of the relationship between government and the economy was shaped more by German influences than by British "free trade" orthodoxy.
Patten's view was government should function as a fourth factor of production whose principle economic concern is to reduce the cost of living and doing business.
Simon Patten on Public Infrastructure and Economic Rent Capture | Michael Hudson
"Public Infrastructure as a Factor of Production
"How the U.S. government increased prosperity was by creating infrastructure in the form of canals and railroads, a postal service, and public education as a 'fourth' factor of production alongside labor, land, and capital.
"Taxes would be 'burdenless,' according to Patten, if invested in public internal improvements, headed by transportation infrastructure. 'The Erie Canal keeps down railroad rates, and takes from local producers in the East their rent of situation.'
"'Notice, for example, the fall in the price of [upstate New York] farms through western competition' by making low-priced crops available from Western farms.'
"'Likewise in the cities, public transport would minimize property prices (and hence economic rent) in the center relative to the outlying periphery[6] (Patten 1892, in 1924: 98).'"
More Ivory tower bullshit. Economists need the equivalent of what Scientists have in Engineers to cut through the theoretical crap and implement things that actually matter in the real world.A valid idea in science is endorsed by either theories or theorems. Economics largely relies on assumptions and not on connecting logic or being confirmed through numerous experiments and observations.
Additionally, Economics, as it's taught today, confines itself to the doctrines of neoliberal capitalism which makes as much sense as teaching a course on Religion that limits its scope to the tenets of Evangelical Christianity.
Any course on marxism is in essence a course on economics, so your last point is no point at all.
Courses on Marxism are few and far between compared to the dominant strain of capitalism over the last forty years.
Any students or professors who choose to follow paths that run counter to traditional finance/economic schools, are virtually guaranteed a lack of educational/job opportunities.
Neoliberalism - Wikipedia
"Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism[1] is the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalismand free market capitalism.[2]:7[3]
"Those ideas include economic liberalization policies such as privatization, austerity, deregulation, free trade[4]and reductions in government spending in order to increase the role of the private sector in the economy and society.[12]
"These market-based ideas and the policies they inspired constitute a paradigm shift away from the post-war Keynesian consensus which lasted from 1945 to 1980."
