Re lee's Benjamin Franklin quote (in #176), namely:

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. —I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

The problem is lee - following the Conservative line that "taxes are an impost on "aspiration" and "wealth creation"  - doesn't tell us how government can play its role in "leading or driving them out of it".

I agree with Franklin: the US government shouldn't be funding food stamps for the poor ie "making them easy in poverty", it should be ensuring access to work, and subsidizing low-paid work with free treasury-issued money if necessary.

Hence the MMT 'Job Guarantee'. 

lee wrote Yesterday at 3:57pm:


Your confusion is astounding.

Have a look at the recent pages of the MMT thread; governments are falling like 10-pins because public debt is ballooning and governments can't 'balance their budgets.

The sad thing is public debt - unlike private debt - doesn't matter; eg, the US, UK, and France just need to abandon "austerity",  and keep more of their electors contented.

As for individual debt:
MMT addresses the macroeconomy and the role of government, not your household budget.

Nevertheless  MMT shows the government's debt is the private sector's savings....whether YOU have any savings (or debt) or not.   

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How does  ensuring access to work jack up the price of energy?

A fully-employed workforce increases collective economic wellbeing, by directing public resources from police, courts, prisons, hospitals, to education, housing, and more functional families.

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Yet you won't consider WHY Limbaugh changed his mind.

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The point is it SHOULD be.

Enjoy your dysfunctional  democracy, while the Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck are getting nervous as the shut down drags on (due to dispute re spending and debt); and increasing inequality as Musk is nearing  $1 trillion in personal wealth.   

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Actually Oz personal debt is higher than  Swedish personal debt; and Oz has a housing crisis..... beware of a housing bust if unemployment rises in Oz - it's not the government debt which will crash the economy, see the GFC.   

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Good to see you doing your own research.

The JG 'community service' job is a (temporary) backstop job for anyone who can't find a job in the regular (private or public) sector job market, usually due to the cyclical nature of private-sector business activity.

The JG offers an above poverty wage which is the minimum wage in the economy, replacing destructive (for the individual) poverty level 'welfare'.

As Franklin said: "lead the poor out of poverty"....ie, don't support them to merely lanquish IN poverty.

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Unlike bondholders choosing secure returns on the government tit, the unemployed on 'welfare' are FORCED onto the government tit, as the government provides just enough poverty level 'welfare' to avoid a violent uprising among the unemployed - as per the hideous NAIRU dogma of orthodox Neoclassical  economics. 

As for the government tit, it is only needed because government itself is forced onto the private sector's tit (by taxing or selling bonds to rich people/institutions) in order to promote the general welfare (because it's not the private sector's  task to engender the general welfare). 

See 'Public Money: Public Good'.

.....

Listening to 'elder statesman' John Anderson giving a Boyer lecture on the ABC: he is bemoaning the loss of faith in democractic functioning around the world (my very point), but when he started blaming governments for "excessive borrowing...which will wreck future generations***....."; blimey, time to press the 'off' button, to avoid having to listen to another mainstream economic ignoramus.

*** failure to invest in public infrastructure NOW will harm the prospects of future generations.