Buchanan Thesis:

Professor Buchanan holds that the financing of a project by the government by means of borrowing does shift a burden to the future generations. According to him, the concept of burden should be interpreted in terms of the individual attitudes towards their  economic well-being rather than in terms of changes in private-sector outputs and real income because of the inheritance by the  latter generations of a larger or smaller amount of capital instruments. Buchanan argues that during the period in which the project is financed and borrowing takes place, no burden of any kind is created; individuals who give loans to the government voluntarily  exchange liquid funds for less liquid government bonds instead of using the funds for acquiring consumption and/or investment goods. Since this is done voluntarily by the individuals concerned, they do not feel themselves to be any worse off. When,  however, the bonds are repaid in the future generation, funds are taken from the taxpayers to the bondholders as a result, the tax  payers feel themselves to be worse off, but the bond holders are not better off since they have now merely changed bonds for cash. In other words, as the bondholders are not worse off by changing cash into bonds so also they can not be better off in the latter generations by the changing of bonds into cash. But in the latter generations the tax payers are worse off since tax is a compulsory payment. As a result, the society as a whole becomes worse-off during the future generations. In this sense a burden is shifted to the future generations.