>But i think orthodox ideas about finance go deeper
>than just fatcats on Wall Street. The average man on
>the street now (and I imagine then) is always
>complaining about the gummint wasting his tax dollars
>(even if he doesn't pay much in the way of taxes) on
>durnfool schemes.
I suspect thinking on this was very different in 1937 than 1997.
Also, if you ask Americans if government spending is wasteful, most will say yes. If you ask specific questions - do you like Social Security? Medicare? do you think government should help the poor? (without using the word "welfare") - they say yes.
But why do people believe that (unspecified) government spending is wasteful? Aside from the usually present racial subtext, it's also that they've been hearing this crap from politicians and pundits for decades. And why to politicians and pundits say that? Because they get their ideas and money from the ruling class, which has a deep material interest in spreading that rancid gospel.
Doug