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André Gorz predicted the revolt against meaningless work (2023)

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96 points robtherobber | 1 comments | 16 Oct 25 15:21 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
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mc32 ◴[22 Oct 25 22:13 UTC] No.45675831[source]▶
If Covid conditions had gone on longer, decades, then output would have gone down, the treasury from which subsidies and government checks came from would have dried up. Even bullshit jobs add to GDP. Even socialist and communists had bullshit jobs to keep people busy.

That said, the jobs I’d consider non essential are things like advertising, lifestyle, gambling/gsming and the sort. They add to the economy but I’d rather not have them.

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jmcmichael ◴[22 Oct 25 23:40 UTC] No.45676539[source]▶
Federal spending is not funded by taxes, the US Treasury will never 'dry up', and the US will never default on its debts or entitlements. It may fail to pay, however that is not a default, it is a refusal or repudiation of an obligation.
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mc32 ◴[22 Oct 25 23:46 UTC] No.45676578[source]▶
...so paying taxes is just there to control people and expropriate their money? Please let Newsom in on this discovery. He says he's for the common man and woman. He's gotta do something.

But sure, Weimar had more money than god --it just had no purchasing power.

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1. jmcmichael ◴[23 Oct 25 01:32 UTC] No.45677215[source]▶
Taxes provide the fundamental value of money: taxes must be paid in the state’s currency, making that currency inherently valuable to avoid punishment. They also provide a way to prevent the existence of individuals powerful enough to corrupt the regulatory state, as has occurred in many of the most powerful neoliberal jurisdictions.

Yes, inflation is a constraint, and a powerful one - but avoiding inflation by treating a sovereign currency system like a household or corporation that do not have powers of money creation or taxation, and therefore must balance their budgets, is absurdity. The strongest constraint on state spending is an economy’s production capacity, not an arbitrary budget.