The Goldilocks Government

Those of you who are concerned that government has grown too small or those of you who are concerned that government has grown too large (do you all have your hands up now?) might want to take a look at this post by Donald Marron. As it turns out, you’re both right.

Over the period of the last half century government has increasingly turned from producing goods and services to a mechanism for transferring income. The former function has declined slightly in recent years. The latter has grown enormously over the period of the last half century.

Read the whole thing. It’s short, to the point, and includes a handy graph.

1 comment… add one
  • steve Link

    An insurance program with a big army. When people start whining about how government has grown too big, I think it important to understand how it has really grown. AFAICT, it is not in what it controls, employees or services, it is really payments for health care and SS, for federal spending. At the state and local level we have had major growth in the number of employees, and health care spending.

    Steve

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