Hypothetically, you can imagine the government setting all tax income on fire and just printing new money to do the stuff it wants (however much they need). It

Hypothetically, you can imagine the government setting all tax income on fire and just printing new money to do the stuff it wants (however much they need). It's valid to argue that dollars are fungible and it's all how you choose to account it, and that's my point. They don't need you to pay them taxes to get schools and roads, but there does need to be enough productive capacity available in the economy to supply those things, and the government needs to be able to command their production without causing major problems. Paying say, 40% tax "sort of" reserves 40% of production for government use, but it's complicated.