the modern monetary theorists point out that taxes is how the demand for national currency as a commodity in and of itself is created. At least in a country with currency sovereignty, a fiat currency, and a debt that is denominated in its own currency (like the US). Basically, imagine if you actually managed to live the “yeoman farmer” dream. Imagine you actually got to own some land (paid off the mortgage) and started subsistence farming on it. Well you now have a huge economic incentive to stop participating in the economy, not have a job, feed yourself, and just fuck off and enjoy the rest of your life until you die. Good for you, bad for the nation. So you get property taxed. Well now you can’t just live off of your subsistence. You have to go get a job and earn dollars and participate in the economy at least enough to pay your property taxes. There’s no actual escape from needing participate in the economy and earn dollars, even if you try to pull off the libertarian meme of getting your own land and growing your own food and paying off your mortgage.

28:27 of this video explains what I’m rambling about

Of course the caveat here is that the real way to get around all this is to just become a capitalist exploiter, so that other people’s work earns you enough money to live off of. But by definition most people can’t become an exploiter, because exploitation is a pyramid scheme that requires more people at the bottom than at the top.

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