Early MMT Theory in the Bible
Debt to God is the linchpin of "Pauline" Christian theology. According to this theory, Adam incurred this more or less infinite debt in Eden for reasons that are irrelevant to these remarks. This debt was handed down to every single human being, including babies and people who lived and died without hearing any of the Old Testament stories. Jesus "paid off" this debt by sacrificing himself on the cross. Only for humans that believe the story, of course. I note that both this debt and the payment are arbitrarily declared "out of thin air" by the Lord of the Universe. It's really a story about "fiat" debt.
Sacrifice to the Gods is universal in all the world's religions. The Old Testament lays out the theory of sacrifice over and over and in great detail, including the endorsement of human sacrifice. God demands sacrifice, usually in the form of an unblemished animal which is, paradoxically burned *. The psychology is not that god needs the dead flesh (although the priests do). The benefit comes by giving up something of great value.
There is a tight little story in the Old Testament that may be the most ancient application of Modern Monetary Theory. In this story, God allows Abraham to get out of sacrificing his son by sacrificing a sheep that God himself provides "out of thin air" for no other purpose but to sacrifice to Himself. The MMT lesson is clear: the tax itself creates the need for the sacrifice and actually causes government spending (in this case, by God). This particular Biblical story is central to both Jews and Christians. The most popular interpretation is that God will provide, not that God needs sacrifice, human or otherwise. Again, there is a parallel in MMT.
We should not be too surprised that the government, which has replaced God for all intents and purposes, demands a cash sacrifice which is effectively destroyed upon receipt. Accepting this ritual as "payment" depends on widespread acceptance of a myth - that the government "needs" our payment to provide services. We fail to demand any evidence of a direct connection between our sacrifice and the services that the Government supplies, just as we failed to think too deeply about why burning our animals were needed for the rain to fall - even when the rain didn't fall.
Just sayin' ...
* Today, the Church joined the King with a more practical demand. God now accepts money. In fact, I suspect that you would not make yourself popular by handing over a dead calf when the collection plate comes to you. In previous centuries it's obvious that God switched his preference from dead meat to gold. But now, God, like the rest of us, has been forced to accept "the coin of the realm" to pay expenses that He cannot meet any other way, in spite of His infinite powers.
Sacrifice to the Gods is universal in all the world's religions. The Old Testament lays out the theory of sacrifice over and over and in great detail, including the endorsement of human sacrifice. God demands sacrifice, usually in the form of an unblemished animal which is, paradoxically burned *. The psychology is not that god needs the dead flesh (although the priests do). The benefit comes by giving up something of great value.
There is a tight little story in the Old Testament that may be the most ancient application of Modern Monetary Theory. In this story, God allows Abraham to get out of sacrificing his son by sacrificing a sheep that God himself provides "out of thin air" for no other purpose but to sacrifice to Himself. The MMT lesson is clear: the tax itself creates the need for the sacrifice and actually causes government spending (in this case, by God). This particular Biblical story is central to both Jews and Christians. The most popular interpretation is that God will provide, not that God needs sacrifice, human or otherwise. Again, there is a parallel in MMT.
We should not be too surprised that the government, which has replaced God for all intents and purposes, demands a cash sacrifice which is effectively destroyed upon receipt. Accepting this ritual as "payment" depends on widespread acceptance of a myth - that the government "needs" our payment to provide services. We fail to demand any evidence of a direct connection between our sacrifice and the services that the Government supplies, just as we failed to think too deeply about why burning our animals were needed for the rain to fall - even when the rain didn't fall.
Just sayin' ...
* Today, the Church joined the King with a more practical demand. God now accepts money. In fact, I suspect that you would not make yourself popular by handing over a dead calf when the collection plate comes to you. In previous centuries it's obvious that God switched his preference from dead meat to gold. But now, God, like the rest of us, has been forced to accept "the coin of the realm" to pay expenses that He cannot meet any other way, in spite of His infinite powers.
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