Ah yes, the “Ickydumic’s”.

This phenomenon is on full display within orthodox economics by academics who subscribe to neo-liberal doctrine.

These economists advocate and reinforce failed economic principles that support austerity and say, states (countries) that are currency sovereigns should balance their budgets.

The media and the political class reinforce the myth that we need to be taxed in order that a currency sovereign can spend.

Sadly the great unwashed have been brainwashed, they buy into and pay for the myth. How this has come about was articulated by Michael D Yates who said in “The Great Inequality”:

“…First, power allows a person unilaterally to change another's constraints, and it can, when exercised long enough, change the habits of subordinates so that the latter act automatically in the interests of their masters. Second, those with personal power will inevitably also have social power, and this will allow them to make the rules that all must obey, and these will benefit the powerful. These rules, in turn, may come to seem normal, which lowers any costs the powerful would have to incur to maintain their power. Third, wherever there is power, there can be no democracy, since if there where, such power would be abolished by majority rule…”

There is, however a growing number of heterodox economist who are pushing back and are using MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) to explain how the existing monetary and fiscal system should be used equitably.