ON the brink of an economic disaster, the US is blithely charging ahead with budget cuts which will likely cause widespread immiseration and tax cuts which will surely lead to spiralling in- flat ion. In taking these steps, America's dilemma is, in a sense, a replay of the classical conundrum faced by early 19th century England, when a nation of producers could not consume the very goods their own hands made. Only now the State, rather than the employer alone, Is the centerpiece for forcing the population below its cost of maintenance, sustenance, and reproduction.