A government cannot liquidate its deficit if the source of its revenues, the national income, is diminishing. It is deficit reduction, not debt, that is profligate, because it implies wastage of available human and physical capital, quite apart from the resulting misery.
在这些情况下，财政紧缩所起的作用刚好相反。如果一国政府的收入来源——国民收入——在减少，那么该政府就不可能降低其财政赤字。真正作恶的是赤字削减而不是债务，因为削减意味着浪费可用的人力和物质资本，更别提其导致的痛苦后果了。