Thread by @citizensmediatv

"Then why does the military budget keep going up as social programs keep getting cut?"

Now that’s a good question.

[thread]

#LearnMMT

https://twitter.com/stevenj94613027/status/1025300748819677185

You & I require income (a paycheck) before we can spend. We must choose & prioritize what we spend each $ on. Food or medicine? Can’t afford both this week. Or...gotta chop that pill in half in order to buy bread & eggs to feed our kids. Hard choices. One or the other. Either or.

Before the United States went off the gold standard in August of 1971, the federal government was exactly the same way: they needed income (taxes, borrowing) before they could spend on federal programs.

Since August of 1971, however, the United States became a "fiat" currency. Our money is no longer backed by gold. To say that you and I are NOTHING like the federal government is the understatement of understatements.

The federal government can create its own money: They can create
- as much as they want,
- whenever they want,
- for whatever they want,
- and they’re the only one in the world who’s allowed do it.

The federal govt can create $ like a child drawing a trillion $ bill on a piece of construction paper. Like increasing the points on a scoreboard. B/c they want to.

A good faith govt would not create more $ than their real resources can handle, but they COULD create infinite $.

Here’s the big lie:

The federal government must get income before they spend, just like me and you.

But if you could create infinite money on a whim, would you need income?

Of course the answer is:

No. You wouldn’t.

Every other lie:

- the debt
- the deficit
- borrow
- “fiscally responsible"
- “natural unemployment"
- balanced budget
- surplus

and on and on and on...

EVERY other lie is based on the big lie.

So, if you were the federal government and you had this godlike power, would you be forced to choose EITHER this thing or that thing BECAUSE of a lack of *MONEY*?

No. That doesn’t make economic sense. Just create more.

The word "afford" for the federal government has absolutely nothing to do with money (you can create it infinitely, so what do you care!?).

Do you have the real resources to do it? Then do it!

(Real resources: things in the ground, things that grow, human labor, time)

“Then why does the military budget keep going up as social programs keep getting cut?"

The fed gvt can easily afford to give the ppl what they need. We r the “richest” country in the history of the world. They could do it tmrw if they wanted. They could have done it decades ago.

(I mean, maybe we’d need to be more efficient or make different moral choices with our resources. Like, oh, I don’t know... How about using the military to protect our people instead of being the bullies of the world who steal lunch money from other countries?)

The Masters of the Universe (& their politician employees) hide behind the big lie 2 pretend they WANT TO BUT CAN’T give us these things, when the truth is that they simply don’t want to.

The big lie & all its sub-lies are reinforced by the media, education system & “experts.”

The Masters of the Universe want you to believe that *IF* we want social programs then we must must FIRST reduce the military IN ORDER TO get that money. *IF* we want social programs then we must must FIRST tax the rich IN ORDER TO get their money.

But if you could create money like the federal government, then why would you need any $ from anyone or anything? You wouldn’t.

Would you need to borrow $ from China?
Would you need to tax the people more?
(What does it even mean for someone like this to “be in debt”?)

We MUST tax the rich to reduce immoral inequality, we MUST reduce the military so we stop abusing the rest of the world.

But we don’t – it is IMPOSSIBLE to – reduce the military or tax the rich IN ORDER TO get their money.

(We are only talking about the federal level here).

Pretending that the big lie is true, however, has 1 critical purpose: it pits the powerless against the powerful – bc we can’t get anything until we wrest the $ from their cold dead hands. It also pits those who want big programs against those who are terrified of raised taxes.

The big lie is economically inaccurate (nonsensical), but it is a perfect and elegant tool for keeping everybody fighting with everybody, while the Masters of the Universe sit back & laugh.

Economic ignorance tears the ppl apart no different than racism, xenaphobia, & classism.

Everyone is upset because “we simply don’t have enough money to fund both the military and social programs.” But for the Federal government, money is quite literally no object.

So should we be angry at something that makes no economic sense? That the federal government doesn’t have enough “money” to give the people what they need to survive?

(If only the federal government could scrape and scrap just a LITTLE more income... Uh, I can just taste it.)

Or should we be angry at our politicians because they tell us that the big lie is true and use economic ignorance against us, as a tool to keep powerful powerful and powerless powerless?

Please #LearnMMT.

To #LearnMMT from the experts see @Sherry_Resen’s website wecanhavenicethings.com/introductions/

To #LearnMMT from very smart non-experts, join FB/#MMT4@RealProgressUS:

facebook.com/groups/MMTforR…

To #LearnMMT, follow these #MMT economists and experts:

The Beatles:

@StephanieKelton, @billy_blog, @wbmosler

Others:

@FadhelKaboub, @ptvherneva, @stf18, @SandyDarity, @StevenHailAus, @elliswinningham, @RaulACarrillo

There are more.

@stevenj94613027 We’re on the same side and have the same goals. We’re all doing the best we can with what we know. The vast majority of Americans believe exactly what you do, to be accurate and true. No offense intended.

(The United States government doesn’t just have “enough money“ to give the people what they need, it has infinite money to give the people what they need. Money doesn’t matter. To the federal government, only real resources matter. #LearnMMT)

Repeating without parentheses:

The United States government doesn’t just have “enough” money to give the people what they need.

The United States government has INFINITE money to give the people what they need.

Money doesn’t matter. To the federal government, only real resources matter.

#LearnMMT

Correcting a tag: @Sherry_Reson for the We Can Have Nice Things website. Darn.

https://twitter.com/citizensmediatv/status/1021799344494858240?s=21

@threadreaderapp unroll

Another fixed tag: @ptcherneva is an MMT economist to learn from. Darn darn.

Typos:

"must must" 👉 "must"
"must must" 👉 "must" (I copied the sentence 🙄)
"Keep *THE* powerful powerful"

😡🤬