Most
of the frictions between two states involve a series of obscure and
long-winded contentions, occasionally on the frontier, but far more
often in regions about which school geographies have supplied no
precise ideas. In Czechoslovakia America is regarded as the Liberator;
in American newspaper paragraphs and musical comedy, in American
conversation by and large, it has never been finally settled whether
the country we liberated is Czechoslavia or Jugoslovakia.
In foreign affairs the incidence of policy is for a very long time
confined to an unseen environment. Nothing that happens out there is
felt to be wholly real. And so, because in the ante-bellum period,
nobody has to fight and nobody has to pay, governments go along
according to their lights without much reference to their people. In
local affairs the cost of a policy is more easily visible. And
therefore, all but the most exceptional leaders prefer policies in
which the costs are as far as possible indirect.
They do not like direct taxation. They do not like to pay as they go.
They like long term debts. They like to have the voters believe that
the foreigner will pay. They have always been compelled to calculate
prosperity in terms of the producer rather than in terms of the
consumer, because the incidence on the consumer is distributed over so
many trivial items. Labor leaders have always preferred an increase of
money wages to a decrease in prices.
Pages:
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256