The basic problem, Comrade, is you slept through the history of barter. Barter can only happen if both parties agree to the trade. If someone says "no", the exchange never happens. Civilized folks walk away from it. Violent people switch from Trade to War, beat the other person senseless, grab what they want, and leave the other person w…
The basic problem, Comrade, is you slept through the history of barter. Barter can only happen if both parties agree to the trade. If someone says "no", the exchange never happens. Civilized folks walk away from it. Violent people switch from Trade to War, beat the other person senseless, grab what they want, and leave the other person with nothing. Governments happened when the biggest brute in the neighborhood hosted a Fair, at which people could safely trade, because the host could beat the crap out of anyone who tried to rob his guests.
Money got invented at these fairs, as a way to raise the value of a proposed barter deal to persuade the other party to take it. Here in the Rio Salado Valley of Arizona, the Pima people held fairs at which Apache and Tohono people traded regularly, and on occasion Hopi, Havasupi and Navajo visitors came by. Spanish conquistadores who visited the area named the Rio Salado for some saltwater springs along its banks near present-day Phoenix. Pima traders collected the saltwater in pottery, let it dry in the sunlight, and scraped salt out of the pots. A leather bag of salt functioned as money. Everybody used salt in food, and unlike all other foods, salt did not rot.
So skipping ahead five centuries, the US circulates paper notes as money, and we use them in trade because we go to prison if we do not pay taxes. And under the Legal Tender Act, we can only use the paper notes to pay the tax.
Wealthy people, like the Pima 500 years ago who mined the salt their neighbors used as money, could buy what they wanted. They paid in salt for it.
The wealthy can only be taxed until they leave the US for a cheaper place to live. Plus the wealthy have their choice of what to trade and how.
Taxing the poor is a tool for compelling the poor to use the Government's paper notes as money. It's through a majority of the US population using Government notes as money, that the notes hold any value at all.
The basic problem, Comrade, is you slept through the history of barter. Barter can only happen if both parties agree to the trade. If someone says "no", the exchange never happens. Civilized folks walk away from it. Violent people switch from Trade to War, beat the other person senseless, grab what they want, and leave the other person with nothing. Governments happened when the biggest brute in the neighborhood hosted a Fair, at which people could safely trade, because the host could beat the crap out of anyone who tried to rob his guests.
Money got invented at these fairs, as a way to raise the value of a proposed barter deal to persuade the other party to take it. Here in the Rio Salado Valley of Arizona, the Pima people held fairs at which Apache and Tohono people traded regularly, and on occasion Hopi, Havasupi and Navajo visitors came by. Spanish conquistadores who visited the area named the Rio Salado for some saltwater springs along its banks near present-day Phoenix. Pima traders collected the saltwater in pottery, let it dry in the sunlight, and scraped salt out of the pots. A leather bag of salt functioned as money. Everybody used salt in food, and unlike all other foods, salt did not rot.
So skipping ahead five centuries, the US circulates paper notes as money, and we use them in trade because we go to prison if we do not pay taxes. And under the Legal Tender Act, we can only use the paper notes to pay the tax.
Wealthy people, like the Pima 500 years ago who mined the salt their neighbors used as money, could buy what they wanted. They paid in salt for it.
The wealthy can only be taxed until they leave the US for a cheaper place to live. Plus the wealthy have their choice of what to trade and how.
Taxing the poor is a tool for compelling the poor to use the Government's paper notes as money. It's through a majority of the US population using Government notes as money, that the notes hold any value at all.
Taxing the poor is a tool for relieving the rich of a lot of tax-paying, and also for pouring money into the pockets of the rich (who, evidently, can only use so much salt). https://deanbaker.net/books/the-conservative-nanny-state.htm