Money Is No Object: Why Society Can Afford Everything it Needs to Thrive

We are facing multiple interconnected crises - cost of living, climate, healthcare and wellbeing. Even freedom and relative world peace seem to be under threat in a way not seen since the Second World War. Each person has their own unique views and priorities on tackling the significant issues facing the global community. However, what often prevents us from agreeing on solutions are finance and its associated politics.

There are plenty of things we could spend money on - infrastructure, healthcare, defence, social care, green energy, education, the natural environment etc. Indeed, expenditure on these would benefit people across society and help alleviate the threats we face. However, we’re often told that we don’t have enough money available or that we need to defund something to provide something else. We frequently argue that 'someone else' should pay.

This book aims to demonstrate that society can afford to tackle all our issues without creating rampant inflation or raising taxes significantly, either now or for future generations. Indeed, we can even use government and private expenditure to reduce inflation, instead of just accepting the economic hardship caused by raising interest rates. The cost of inaction and inadequate investment in people, the environment and the economy are significantly greater and even threaten the existence of civilised society itself.

Doing much needed investments across our communities and the environment should create a virtuous cycle that increases economic growth, raises tax revenues and expands the pool of wealth that can finance government and private expenditure indefinitely. Specifically, this book:

• Explains what money is and how it is created in modern economies.
• Explains what inflation is and how it is measured and controlled.
• Explains what government (public / national) debt really is.
• Demonstrates how society’s priorities and needs can be funded without causing inflation and without raising taxes now or in the future.
• Shows that the decision not to fund something with government money is always a political choice and not born out of necessity.
• Argues that it’s possible to stimulate sustainable high economic growth so that society is happy, healthy and prosperous in perpetuity.
• Suggests what each of us can do to bring about a better future for all.

The key to society thriving is the creation of money and its investment in key priorities in a non-inflationary way, as well as growing the real productive capacity of the economy - people’s skills, technology, manufacturing and the ecosystem services provided by our natural environment. The creation of money is something both the public and private sector does and both will need to work together to tackle the significant issues we are all facing.

This is the conclusion of something called Modern Monetary Theory. This book covers MMT largely from a UK perspective and links it to the role of the private sector, to build on work such as the excellent book The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and How to Build a Better Economy by Professor Stephanie Kelton. MMT argues that size of government deficits and debts don't matter and taxation isn't needed to fund public expenditure (but is still important). The real limit to what can be spent is the real productive resources of the economy and inflation. This is something that should be widely understood and acknowledged by politicians and the public when making policy decisions or when discussing whether we can afford to do something or not.

We can and do deserve better than what our current system is delivering. The truth should be widely known that currency can be created digitally without limit by all of us and this power should be used responsibly to enhance prosperity. Money is no object and society can afford everything it needs to thrive.