The Success of Keynesianism Is Due to It Providing an Apparent Justification for Deficit Spending Policies

The "Keynesian revolution" took place long before Keynes approved of it and fabricated a pseudo-scientific justification for it. What he really did was to write an apology for the prevailing policies of governments.

This explains the quick success of his book. It was greeted enthusiastically by the governments and the ruling political parties. Especially enraptured were a new type of intellectuals, the "government economists." . . .

The unprecedented success of Keynesianism is due to the fact that it provides an apparent justification for the "deficit spending" policies of contemporary governments. It is the pseudo-philosophy of those who can think of nothing else than to dissipate the capital accumulated by previous generations.

--Ludwig von Mises, "Lord Keynes and Say's Law," in The Critics of Keynesian Economics, ed. Henry Hazlitt (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1995), 319-320.