Thread by @AlexValchyshen

#Tolstoy & #MMT connection

In 1886, great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy published a non-fiction piece called 'What Then Must We Do?'.

There is a chapter on #money, which in effect sounds very much familiar and close to the #MMT motto -- #taxes-drive-money.

1/4

Tolstoy: "Any money is getting accepted between people only when they are forcefully demanded to be delivered by everybody. When every person needs money to redeem herself/himself from violence, only then money will obtain stable exchange value..."

2/4 #Tolstoy & #MMT connection

Tolstoy (cont'd): "... And what is demanded by the government [to be delivered by people as payment of taxes, fees, etc] obtains value, not what is convenient for exchange."

3/4 #Tolstoy & #MMT connection

This is very remarkable! Every Russian speaking person knows and likely uses the word 'babki' (reads like 'bubkee'), which is a widely-used slang substitute for #money.

4/4 #Tolstoy & #MMT connection

Tolstoy uses the word '#babki' to illustrate his explanation of why money obtains value. He says:

"...if babki will be demanded [by the gov't as payment for taxes, fees, etc], they babki obtains value [and becomes money]."

What is 'babki' originally?

5/n #Tolstoy & #MMT

In Russian old tradition babki was a piece of stone used by kids to play the game called babki (see the picture borrowed from here: ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B1%D0…)

Hence, babki in the Russian language means money as a token and #Tolstoy gives us additional part of the story -- their [money's] value comes with the power of the #sovereign gov't to enforce tax payments.

Taxes drive babki/money.

#Tolstoy & #MMT connection /END