Many, if not most, differences in economic or political or even social views boil down to whether you believe you can trust monkeys or not. Thomas Sowell explains this notion in terms of “constrained” and “unconstrained” views. A constrained view suggests that all monkeys are inherently bad and can’t be left to their own devices. An unconstrained view suggests that monkeys are inherently good but sometimes need direction to avoid doing bad things. Thankfully, those with an unconstrained view also believe that there are supremely good and smart monkeys that know what is best for the other monkeys and can provide the necessary direction. My personal view is that monkeys are not to be trusted. I also don’t believe in supremely good or smart monkeys.

I know that sounds cynical. However, the fact that anyone would advance MMT for serious consideration, and that some believe it to be a good thing, makes it clear that monkeys simply cannot be trusted. MMT is just a way for the political class to avoid having to consider the citizenry in doing things they want to do. Keynes at least limited the notion of printing money to periods when the economy needed stabilizing. MMT does away with the need to provide any justification for printing money. There shouldn’t be a need to justify anything to anyone if you are one of the supremely good and smart monkeys. And even if you aren’t that good or smart, you can just print more money to deal with problems caused by printing money. It is interesting that proponents of MMT don’t go as far as to say that taxing the citizenry is unnecessary. Which is odd, because if you can just print money to pay for anything you want, why would you need to tax anybody? MMT proponents actually argue that taxes are one of the controls that are required to avoid inflation. Wait! I cause inflation when I spend my money, but there is no need to worry about inflation when the government spends money it doesn’t have? Believe it or not, there are monkeys among us that believe this absurd idea makes sense. I don’t.

I also don’t believe that preserving the dollar requires a CBDC. Preserving the dollar requires electing monkeys with some common sense. A CBDC does not make monkeys good, or smarter, or wiser, or more conscientious about government spending. However, it will give them greater control over the money held by other monkeys. We then have to worry about someone getting to believing they are a particularly good and smart monkey. To that point, I offer a quote from C.S. Lewis:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

In my view, giving any group of monkeys that kind of control, especially over something like the US Dollar, is grossly irresponsible. Consider what the monkeys have done so far without that degree of control. As I write this, we are about $35 trillion in debt…and you want me to trust the monkeys. As I said before, monkeys are just not to be trusted.