this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2026
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governments with their own currencies don't require taxes to have/spend money btw
Yeah, but spending money you don't have, or printing money, causes inflation which is basically just a flat tax. And that punishes the poor.
Tax the rich.
Not always, and no.
New money is created all the time, and most of it not even by government spending, but through businesses taking loans.
When governments spend too much in competitive markets, i.e. on resources that aren't there yet, then yes it drives up prices. Just running a deficit does increase the money supply, which still only causes inflation in some cases.
The classic inflation from the economy working a little too well is not a flat tax, since both wages and prices are growing. Savings on the other hand (except stocks), lose their value. Classic inflation erodes the savings of the rich, and erodes the debts of the poor.
And even then, the central bank can always increase the cost of businesses lending to slow things down. That has other downsides, but the point is:
But yes, tax the rich. Can't argue with that
... Also called "printing money".
Inflation doesn't cause wages to grow proportionally, despite what some Harvard wankers like to pretend. Theoretical models are interesting in science, but for something like economy, they are completely useless.
Capital ROI is almost always greater than inflation, meaning wealth inequality increases regardless of inflation. This is before taking into account that physical assets (e.g. housing) also increase in value through inflation, meaning the owning class never loses money to inflation.
Again, theory and practice diverge pretty much entirely.
Inflation is a concept created by governments to be able to run on a perpetual deficit (necessary when you privatise everything profitable by selling it to your buddies). Making a tax on the poor is a "nice" benefit, but don't be mistaken: if the owning class saw it as a threat to their wealth we'd be back to the gold standard already.