“Finally, a government can give us something for nothing by running a deficit, by borrowing money from everybody and then giving everybody his money back, plus interest.  This is obviously stupid and exactly what we have been doing for decades in the United States.  Deficits are less immediately painful than high inflation or huge taxes, although they eventually lead to one or the other, or both. In the meantime, we’re not getting  anywhere.  If all of our investment money is tied up in loans to the government, that money is going to be spent on government things, such as financing the Inner City Wheatfare Program. Our investment money can’t be spent on research and development to create a genetically engineered wheat-eating squid to turn that worthless wheat into valuable calamari.”

From Eat the Rich by P.J. O’Rourke

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