Keynes in World War I, 9th Jan., 2011

Thomas F. Cooley and Lee E. Ohanian make the case that "One clear justification for this balanced-budget policy was that it advanced his social objectives, a view he made explicit in the preface and on the first page of How to Pay for the War:"

I have endeavored to snatch from the exigency of war positive social improvements. The complete scheme (tax policy)now proposed . . . embodies an advance toward economic equality greater than any which we have made in recent times. [P. iii]

[I] propose a plan conceived in a spirit of social justice, a plan which uses a time of general sacrifice, not as an excuse for postponing desirable reforms, but as an opportunity for moving further than we have moved hitherto towards reducing inequality. [P. 1]