"We pay for the NHS with our taxes!"
This idea that taxes pay for the NHS or any other government spending is not only incorrect, it actually empowers the rich and divides the rest of us. 1/12

The rich tell us that they are "wealth creators" providing jobs to us; investing so that we can have the things we want and need, when it is actually the work of the employees that creates the wealth. 2/12

But the narrative means that we cannot tax them effectively because people are worried about their jobs being taken away by the rich moving their operations elsewhere. 3/12

The division the "taxpayer" narrative causes amongst the working class, is corrosive. It pits one against the other; the worker against the "scrounger" the "Brit" against the immigrant. 4/12

It’s time for people to understand that the government pays for the NHS and everything else it funds, by simply authorising the spending; new money is created for all government spending. Taxes are simply deleted from the spreadsheet. 5/12

"Borrowing" is unnecessary, as the current use of the Ways and Means facility at the Bank of England shows. 6/12

The way to a better society lies in understanding how our monetary system really works. That a currency-issuing nation that floats its currency on the market is not constrained by tax revenue or by the bond markets. 7/12

It is constrained by the availability of real resources, by inflation and by environmental concerns. Inflation can be controlled by a well-designed employment buffer stock system (aka the Job Guarantee). 8/12

The desire for a better society is why so many of us try to explain how the monetary system works and to lead people to the academics who have spent decades working on this. 9/12

It is why people are setting up organisations to help the effort; why a group of us set up The Gower Initiative for Modern Money Studies @gowerinitiative 10/12

Without understanding where money comes from, where wealth comes from, what inflation is & what taxes and bond sales are for, people trying to help others & to reduce inequality are working with their hands tied behind their backs. 11/12

It's time to put out-of-date perceptions of how the world works behind us. We no longer have a gold standard. This gives us more freedom; we need to understand how to use it. 12/12