Friday, April 17, 2009

Money and Taxes

One of the principle arguments leveled against Georgism is the allegation that land values would not be a sufficient tax base to raise the revenue needed for the functions of government. While this argument in itself is questionable, it misses a much bigger point. The government has spent more than it takes in for a long time. Of course, under our current system, this is cause for concern. We worry about all the debt we are incurring, which is in fact an inevitable consequence of our current monetary system. The federal income tax was actually initially passed alongside the Federal Reserve Act as a means to pay off the interest on our national debt. The portion of tax revenue devoted to paying off this interest has grown continually since then. If we keep going down this path, it will eventually eat up our entire federal budget.

However, there is another way. If we simply nationalize the Federal Reserve, the government can then issue its own debt-free money for use on wealth-creating public projects. So long as the wealth created is equal to the money created, there is no inflation. Government could theoretically finance all of its functions in this way without having to take a single dime in taxes. It would not be mortgaging our children's future with more debt, but would simply be providing money for the production of goods and services.