• seedotrun@lemmy.cafe
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    18 days ago

    You seem to understand taxes - those ongoing mandatory payments to the government.

    A bond is a way for the government to borrow money. It’s an IOU that’s paid with interest.

    When you vote for a bond you are saying that you agree for the government to accrue debt. They will use tax money to pay that debt off

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Great explanation, and also …

      For example, it’s really expensive to build a new bridge and whatever level of government can’t afford to pay for that. It’s not like you can just demand an extra $1B in taxes.

      But whatever level of government can issue a bond to borrow money, with a promise to pay back in x number of years, and can make that regular payment through money coming in by taxes