ABSTRACT
§ 1. An obvious way of escape from the burden of public debts is to repay them. Another, which may seem even more obvious, is to repudiate them. Let us begin by considering this second possibility. If contracts between a public authority and its creditors are repudiated, while other contracts remain in force, a particular group of property owners is penalised, while all other groups are unaffected, and may even gain through subsequent reduction of taxation. There is a clear argument from equity against such a discrimination. If, on the other hand, all contracts involving payments to property owners are repudiated simultaneously, no discrimination against a particular group is involved and the previous argument from equity loses its force. But we are now contemplating a social revolution, the results of which might be held to be inequitable to property owners as a class. Some hold, however, that aregime of private property, especially if it involves great inequality, is itself inequitable.
