this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five

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ELI5 What is the difference between a tax and a bond.? Is not a tax ongoing and the bond has a cutoff limit? If so then why do people gripe about taxes when they can have bonds? (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 days ago by Patnou@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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[–] seedotrun@lemmy.cafe 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 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