This diary is a brief response to a diary arguing that death panels are inevitable because even countries like Britain and the U.S. run the risk of running out of other people’s money, i.e., out of tax payer’s money.
The diary in question is here: www.dailykos.com/...
This is the argument Thatcher used to undermine social democracy, break the unions, and turn Britain into a tax haven for Russian Oligarchs.
It saddens me to see this sort of crap on DKos — or within spitting range of any “progressive” group of folks.
If money exists, then some human had to have created it. No other animal uses money.
So, we must always ask: Who creates the money we use?
Setting aside things like BitCoin and personal IOUs, the money we use comes from two sources: Governments and private banks.
The euro using countries, however, are in a similar position as our individual states in that, while they share a central bank (the ECB), they do not share a fiscal authority. The euro using countries are not monetarily sovereign.
Thus, they are reliant upon both tax collections and borrowing to fund their expenses.
America, Britain, etc…, on the other hand, are monetarily sovereign. As such, they are not reliant upon either collecting taxes or borrowing to fund their expenses.
Rather, the dollars (or pounds) the private sector uses to pay tax and invest in bonds (gilts) come from government spending. Thus, government funds our ability to pay tax and invest in bonds.
Not the other way around.
What does this mean regarding the supposed “need” for death panels?
To answer this question you need to ask further questions:
1) What is the inflationary impacts of government spending to insure that all receive health care, no matter the cost?
2) Is the inflationary impacts (if there is any — inflation isn’t a concern until you reach full employment) worth the trade off?
If you spend whatever it takes to care for all and still don’t reach full employment, then nothing happens at all. No “need” for death panels.
If you reach full employment, yet haven’t reached full care, then you might get some inflationary impacts.
So, then you’d have to ask: Are we willing to live with some inflation in order to care for all?
The supposition that death panels are inevitable relies upon Maggie Thatcher’s voodoo economics, including the fact she lied her ass off regarding where money comes from.