Why MMT Is a Ruse

MMT's main message is "money printing does not matter" which is their tool to unshackle the left from becoming austere, balancing budgets while the other side happily deficit-spends and cuts services. You print, it is okay they say, until you see inflation, then you can tax to take excess money out of the circulation, calming the economy.

There are major deficiencies with this view. Printing might not result in inflation for a very long time, while the printed money in the current system will almost certainly flow to the rich making them wealthier, and cause them to gobble up more assets decreasing everyone's standard of living. Egg prices might not go up, but housing prices will, and now you are spending more on rent / mortage have less to spend on eggs. Inequality matters. It is not a benign concept where the rich lives in their own gated world while others exist in a seperate economy. It is one economy, if a group has more of something others have less.

I believe MMT types do not understand money, how it flows in the economy. After 2008 money was printed to bail out the system, there was no inflation, inequality worsened, economy fell into duldrums, asset prices rallied. Covid checks did cause brief inflation, but that money also flowed to the rich, rising asset prices even further. In both of these cases government should have taxed the wealthy to take back the money, but according to MMT logic, there was no major inflation, no need to tax. They think, mistakenly, all money pumped into the system will increase money velocity, it will circulate among the many directly, yet there is no such rule in mandating that in economics. Money can flow anywhere. In an unbalanced economy, it will flow upwards, and if not taken back via tax immediately it will cause a zombie economy where one quarter of population is effectively unemployed, working shit jobs just to pay the rent and buy eggs.

That brings us to why MMT is a ruse. Surely its inception is not, some people, including its originators, genuinely (and foolishly) believe in the idea. But look at how much media exposure they got with such a foolish idea. Corporate media loves them, and there is a reason for that. They love them because they know MMT is harmless. The "do not tax until inflation" is music to their ears, because no matter how much money is printed they end up with it, that flow causes almost no inflation. That makes you, the sad MMT follower, the "managed competition". You exist because the corporations and wealthy has no problem with you existing.