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"As against these popular fallacies there is need to emphasize the truism that a government can spend or invest only what it takes away from its citizens and that its additional spending and investment curtails the citizens' spending and investment to the full extent of its quantity."

— von Mises, Ludwig event 1949

From Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

Context: From Part Six, Chapter XXIX ("Restriction of Production"), Section 1 ("The Nature of Restriction") of Human Action (1949); Mises's rebuttal to what he calls Keynes's "Santa Claus fable," the idea that government spending is a costless source of prosperity.

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