but in practice there's no guarantee that we'll remain a fiat economy (more precisely, there's no guarantee people will continue to have faith in our currency without backing of physical goods like gold).
most economies have their own currency and can print at will, but irresponsible budget policies and excessive printing leads to rampant inflation and a collapse of the currency. epic fail.
a fiat economy (the u.s.) can escape this fate as long as we remain the reserve currency of the world. as long as there's a need for u.s. dollars, the currency won't likely collapse in the same way it would for any other currency.
but that's a highly optimistic and short-sighted view. if america has irresponsible budget policies and excessive printing of u.s. dollars, eventually we will lost our fiat status and global trade will switch to euro or some other currency. at that point, we're like any other economy that overprinted and our currency would fail after uncontrolled inflation.
taxes are necessary to fund any government. the form and distribution of tax burden can vary, but some taxes are necessary.
i agree that redistribution is one of the goals of tax policies. since reagan, the effort has been to shift the burden from the rich to the poor and middle class.
inflation can be controlled through tax policy, spending policy, and interest rate manipulation (monetary policy).
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