Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to Re: Very good question, and answers surprised me a bit.

Government and GDP
Tom Brosz — (archived)

I see a lot of stuff about government spending vs. GDP, which makes everything look a lot better, until you actually think about it.

What legitimate purpose exactly does the government spend money on where the need for that spending would double if the economy did?

If the economy booms, and the GDP doubles--which it did between 1986 and 1999--are there twice as many elderly on Social Security? Twice as many people needing welfare? What? Twice as many unemployed? Huh? Twice as many highways required? Do we need twice as many bombers in the Air Force if the GDP doubles?

By any rational line of thinking, a hugely growing economy should REDUCE the requirements for government spending as measured by percentage of GDP. Government spending on legitimate purposes, even if you include social spending, taken as a percentage of GDP, should have leveled off and started to drop years ago.

I'm afraid a lot of it is just plain waste.

More current and more useful documents should be available here, but I have NOT been able to get through, which really pisses me off.

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