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> ...what you end up with is something that looks a lot like the tax code. Which makes me think we should generally just approach this sort of problem with taxe
by specialist 6y ago
> ...what you end up with is something that looks a lot like the tax code. Which makes me think we should generally just approach this sort of problem with taxes: provide a basic version for free and raise taxes to pay for it.
Banks loan money, paid back with interest.
Governments spend money, paid back with taxes.
Government spending is really just a loan.
With two big advantages:
Governments can operate on longer time scales.
Governments can exclude rent seeking "share holders" from transactions.
- nmca 6y agoIt's hard to see what you're getting at here; the sets of people that pay are not the same.
- specialist 6y agoYou're right that it's not always clear how government investment benefits society. Maybe some day we'll have the technology to keep track of it all. Like ubiquitous micro payments for every form of transaction. The ultimate accounting system. Or we could all just be satisfied that healthy governmental revenues in the aggregate is good enough. For government work.
- Gibbon1 6y agoAlso governments have less of an principal agent problem than other entities. A typical US corporation would be considered utterly banana republic corrupt if it were a government.