“If they can print money out of thin air, why do they still make us pay taxes?”
I’ve heard this question asked a lot, but only just now appreciated the answer
To create artificial demand for dollars
Say tomorrow everyone began using bitcoin for everything. You got paid in Bitcoin, you paid for everything in Bitcoin.
You would owe payroll taxes and sales tax in dollars
What would you have to do to get those dollars? Sell Bitcoin for dollars
And of course in the process owe capital gains, which creates more dollar demand
It is critical that dollar creation is backed by debt and exchangeable for oil, but the artificial demand created by taxation is critical for widespread use
It’s not that the idiot MMTers are wrong about how government fiat exists as money, they are just convinced that’s the only way
When the government begins accepting bitcoin for taxes is hyperbitcoinization