Blog-Reference
Economics is NOT a science but agenda-pushing for the Oligarchy. Academic economists are NOT scientists but useful idiots. This is obvious for orthodox/mainstream folks like Paul Krugman who is on the payroll of The New York Times.#2 But it holds also for the heterodox/pluralistic folks who present themselves all over the social media as anti-oligarchic fighters for WeThePeople.
In order to verify this for MMT, in particular, it is sufficient to look at the recent speaking tours of Bill Mitchell and Stephanie Kelton.#3 MMTers do NOT what scientists are supposed to do but what propaganda agents are supposed to do.
MMTers push the Oligarchy’s agenda but can, of course, not say so openly. They present themselves as the good guys, as Progressives who hate and fight the evil of neoliberalism wherever it raises its head and they are among the front-runners of every social movement for the betterment and salvation of humanity.#4
It is pretty obvious that among MMT’s political duties is to try to capture and derail genuine grassroots movements.#5
Where MMT’s true colors become clearly visible is the question of taxation. All MMT’s policy guidance boils ultimately down to deficit-spending/money-creation. Proper economic analysis shows that deficit-spending/money-creation is ultimately to the advantage of the Oligarchy and to the disadvantage of WeThePeople.
The public deficit is in the elementary case defined as D≡G−T and it is equal to macroeconomic profit Q. Because of this, MMTers fight fiercely against budget balancers like Corbyn’s British Labour or the Swabian Housewife. A balanced budget, i.e. G=T, means zero macroeconomic profit.
MMTers argue that taxes are not a necessary prerequisite for spending because the government is the currency issuer. That is technically correct but does NOT economically justify deficit-spending/money-creation.#6 However small, there must be taxation because this is what gives the currency value in the MMT world. So T is always greater than zero.
Now, one would expect that, if taxation is necessary, a progressive MMTer would argue to tax the rich. This is NOT the case. MMTers argue consistently AGAINST taxing the rich’s income.#7 You cannot be more explicit than the MMT loudspeaker Bill Mitchell.
• “Tax the rich! That has become a misguided progressive Left mantra.”
• “That is one of many reasons [to tax the rich]. But you should never include among those reasons a need by government for their cash in order to facilitate spending. Any progressive who articulates that argument is just reiterating neoliberal frames.”
• “The answer is that we need to tax the rich more not because we want the government to get their money in order to spend more, but, rather, to stop the rich using it.”
• “To illustrate the confusion these groups elicit, this same group has signed up to another so-called progressive group and they advocate increasing taxes on higher-income groups to pay for the services we deserve. Meanwhile, in another guise, they hold themselves out as promoting MMT.”
Taxing the rich has always been the instinctive central political plank of genuine anti-Oligarchic movements. Needless to emphasize that fake Progressives are against it: “Any progressive who articulates that argument is just reiterating neoliberal frames.” This is the actual Orwellian newspeak of stupid/corrupt academic economists.#8
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
#1 Billy Blog
#2 Links on Paul Krugman, proto-scientific impresario
#3 European and UK Teaching and Speaking Tour, February 2020 in #1. For more details enter Bill Mitchell/Stephanie Kelton in the search field of the AXEC Blogspot
#4 MMT: If you’ve got a problem, I don’t care what it is, let me help
#5 MMT: Corbynism is dead, British Labour is next
#6 Criminals and the monetary order
#7 MMT: Distribution is the drawback NOT Inflation
#8 Bill Mitchell, MMT, Progressives: economists as Oligarchy hacks
Related 'MMT and grassroots movements' and 'MMT: A Trojan Horse for Labour courtesy of the Oligarchy' and 'Bill Mitchell cracks the spending whip over the Swabian Housewife' and 'Is MMT good for WeThePeople or for the Oligarchy?' and 'How Bill Mitchell stalks Jeremy Corbyn' and 'Stephanie Kelton: “All deficits are good for someone” Yes, Someone=Oligarchy' and 'MMT: A Trojan Horse for Labour courtesy of the Oligarchy' and 'Mainstream vs MMT ― another clown show' and 'The problem with economics as a discipline'. For the full-spectrum refutation of MMT see cross-references MMT.
For more on tax the rich see AXECquery.
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| Source: Billy Blog |
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Bill Mitchell's blog Jan 28
Twitter Sep 11 2020
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MMTers do NOT tax the rich, it is just the other way round: they run a deficit because Public Deficit = Private Profit according to the macroeconomic Profit Law.
Twitter Apr 2
Twitter Apr 8 MMTers don't want taxes from the wealthy but deficits for the wealthy
Twitter May 2
ONE-PAGER NO. 67 | June 2021
EDWARD LANE and L. RANDALL WRAY, Should Corporate Tax Hikes Be Included in Biden’s “Build Back Better” Plans?
"As Modern Money Theory claims, corporate taxes are not really used to finance federal government spending, and if their impact on reducing wealth inequality or inflation pressures is marginal, at best, why have them? We follow Hyman Minsky’s recommendation that taxes on corporations ought to be eliminated entirely."
Twitter Jul 12
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Bill Mitchell's blog Jul 30, 2021
"But MMT is not a ‘movement’, nor, is it a progressive agenda.
I keep reading things like “MMT advocates taxing the rich”.
It doesn’t.
What an understanding of MMT will allow one to conclude is that there is no contingency between the provision of public services or infrastructure by government and tax revenue it might receive from high income or wealth individuals."
"When I talk about the need to ‘tax the rich’, I am expressing a value system, which is quite separate from when I am teaching the principles of MMT."
Twitter Sep 6, 2021
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