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32 Economics in One LessonCorporation, and other government agencies in 1932 and later. But thegovernment can give no financial help to business that it does not firstor finally take from business. The government’s funds all come fromtaxes. Even the much vaunted “government credit” rests on theassumption that its loans will ultimately be repaid out of the proceedsof taxes. When the government makes loans or subsidies to business,what it does is to tax successful private business in order to supportunsuccessful private business. Under certain emergency circumstancesthere may be a plausible argument for this, the merits of which we neednot examine here. But in the long run it does not sound like a payingproposition from the standpoint of the country as a whole. And experiencehas shown that it isn’t.