the point of financial conservatism is not so much the apparently conspicuous merit of "living within one,s means," even though that rhetoric has much appeal. As Mr. Micawber put it rather eloquently in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield; "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought six, result misery." The analogy with personal solvency has been powerfully used by many financial conservatives, perhaps most eloquently by Margaret Thatcher. This argument doesn't, however, provide a clear rule for state policy. Unlike Mr. Micawber, a state can continue to spend more than it earns, through borrowing and other means. In fact, nearly every state does so nearly all the time.