ABSTRACT
The old Popeye cartoons feature Wimpy, a portly character with more appetite than budget. Wimpy regularly proposes to all who will listen that he will repay them Tuesday if they will lend him money to buy a hamburger today. Wimpy is society’s means-wants dilemma in miniature. It is only natural to desire higher levels of consumption. In Wimpy’s case, his desire for consumption in the present exceeds his capacity to sustain it, so he resorts to borrowing against income that he expects to have in the future. State, local, and federal governments face the same dilemma in attempting to meet the citizenry’s desire to consume today while postponing the payments until some future date.
