• Primarily0617@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    arguably the entire worth of the dollar as a currency comes from it being what taxpayers pay in, so yeah it kind of does come from taxpayers

    also, money is fungible with other money, so “this stream of money doesn’t come from there” doesn’t make sense

    • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      arguably the entire worth of the dollar as a currency comes from it being what taxpayers pay in, so yeah it kind of does come from taxpayers

      Not at all. The dollar’s valuation comes primarily from:

      1. Its backing by a stable economic and governmental system and the projected power of the military controlled by that government

      2. Its status at the global reserve currency

      Tokyo, Lisbon, and Santiago don’t hold debt and equity in USD because Phil from Bozeman paid the IRS in that currency.

      • Primarily0617@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Its backing by a stable economic and governmental system

        the only real backing the dollar has is that it’s the only currency you can use to pay US taxes

        1 is necessary for 2, so 2 isn’t really a separate point

        Tokyo, Lisbon, and Santiago don’t hold debt and equity in USD because Phil from Bozeman paid the IRS in that currency.

        They hold debt and equity in USD because USD is stable because there is always a Phil from a Bozeman who needs to pay their taxes, so they money will always have value to somebody

    • theluddite@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      The fungibility isn’t what’s at issue. The link between the money stream and the military is a system that can’t be understood separately. Thinking of it as taxpayer funded doesn’t make sense.

      arguably the entire worth of the dollar as a currency comes from it being what taxpayers pay in, so yeah it kind of does come from taxpayers

      I encourage you to read the book. It really changed my perspective on what value even is and what it means. I don’t think you’ll think this after reading it.

      • Primarily0617@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Thinking of it as taxpayer funded doesn’t make sense.

        if you raise a billion dollars from taxpayers, and then raise a billion dollars from foreign debt, and you have a problem that you need to spend a billion dollars to fix, any dollar from either pile can go towards fixing that problem

        this is like when red bull broke their spending cap in F1 and their response was to say that the overspend was from catering

        I encourage you to read the book.

        i can’t read