It's true that we have massive efficiencies today, but that is irrelevant with regards to government spending. (besides expanding tax revenue)
The government produces nothing, zero. The efficiency you are speaking of is gained by private companies improving their processes, and they accomplish their basic tasks as well as improvements based upon profit (the difference between revenue and operating costs).
But that's business funding. So where does government funding come from? Taxation for one thing, but taxation is not enough. If taxation could cover 100% of government spending, then how is it possible that we have budget deficits? The budget deficit in 2019 is close to $1 trillion. Remember that a budget deficit is the gap between the amount you are spending and the income you are earning. If you did that in the private sector, your business would fail in short order. So how exactly can a government continue to operate despite spending more than it "earns"?
Also money does not represent raw materials. It represents past labor. (in an ideal world where you can't just print it, I mean) It exists because trade would be incredibly inconvenient without a common medium to transfer value, since the person you are dealing with may not have exactly what you want. Barter sucks because if the person doesn't have a good or service that I need at the present, I basically have to get an IOU from them for something that I actually want in the future, which they might never have.
Money is essentially an IOU that everyone accepts and trusts, which represents the value of your past efforts in the labor market, and which can be traded for someone else's good or service. The only reason we use fiat paper is because we are forced to use it to pay taxes, and because it is more convenient than physical metals. It's not trustworthy at all, but neither is government so no surprise there.
No, I didn’t say fall into debt. I said if its revenues exceeded its costs. Revenues are just earnings. If you didn’t have the ability to borrow, your business would fail.
Now if you want to bring debt into the subject, that doesn’t change anything, because banks are motivated by profit too. They will loan to a business, sure, but only if the business will pay back the loan with interest. That means at some point, your revenues have to exceed your cost (you have to make a profit) or the bank will not loan you money.
Now since a government doesn’t make profit, ever, you cannot extend the analogy. Since a government doesn’t make a profit, how can it afford to increase spending when it doesn’t increase taxes?
It can only do so by borrowing against future productivity, and then devaluing the debt in order to make it manageable. (or grow the economy)
Let me ask you. Why does the dollar decline in value every year? Why is it that college was affordable by working in the summers, and house prices were in the tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands? Why did candy, drinks, and burgers go from costing cents to dollars? (in spite of productivity increases!)
It’s because of inflation. It’s a stealth tax that most people can scarcely understand, let alone do anything about.
It's true that we have massive efficiencies today, but that is irrelevant with regards to government spending. (besides expanding tax revenue)
The government produces nothing, zero. The efficiency you are speaking of is gained by private companies improving their processes, and they accomplish their basic tasks as well as improvements based upon profit (the difference between revenue and operating costs).
But that's business funding. So where does government funding come from? Taxation for one thing, but taxation is not enough. If taxation could cover 100% of government spending, then how is it possible that we have budget deficits? The budget deficit in 2019 is close to $1 trillion. Remember that a budget deficit is the gap between the amount you are spending and the income you are earning. If you did that in the private sector, your business would fail in short order. So how exactly can a government continue to operate despite spending more than it "earns"?
Also money does not represent raw materials. It represents past labor. (in an ideal world where you can't just print it, I mean) It exists because trade would be incredibly inconvenient without a common medium to transfer value, since the person you are dealing with may not have exactly what you want. Barter sucks because if the person doesn't have a good or service that I need at the present, I basically have to get an IOU from them for something that I actually want in the future, which they might never have.
Money is essentially an IOU that everyone accepts and trusts, which represents the value of your past efforts in the labor market, and which can be traded for someone else's good or service. The only reason we use fiat paper is because we are forced to use it to pay taxes, and because it is more convenient than physical metals. It's not trustworthy at all, but neither is government so no surprise there.
No, I didn’t say fall into debt. I said if its revenues exceeded its costs. Revenues are just earnings. If you didn’t have the ability to borrow, your business would fail.
Now if you want to bring debt into the subject, that doesn’t change anything, because banks are motivated by profit too. They will loan to a business, sure, but only if the business will pay back the loan with interest. That means at some point, your revenues have to exceed your cost (you have to make a profit) or the bank will not loan you money.
Now since a government doesn’t make profit, ever, you cannot extend the analogy. Since a government doesn’t make a profit, how can it afford to increase spending when it doesn’t increase taxes?
It can only do so by borrowing against future productivity, and then devaluing the debt in order to make it manageable. (or grow the economy)
Let me ask you. Why does the dollar decline in value every year? Why is it that college was affordable by working in the summers, and house prices were in the tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands? Why did candy, drinks, and burgers go from costing cents to dollars? (in spite of productivity increases!)
It’s because of inflation. It’s a stealth tax that most people can scarcely understand, let alone do anything about.