The size of government is truly huge. When one thinks of government, most look just at the Federal government workers which number 11,028,000 jobs. They include grantee jobs, uniformed military personnel, Federal civil servants, contractor jobs and postal jobs. Counting the unemployed, those collecting social security benefit checks, collecting welfare payment checks, local and state hourly workers, cops teachers, firemen, librarians, road departments and state legislature, those figures mushroom into a huge personalized income tax bill supported by taxpayers personalized checks!
Most economists have come to the conclusion that cutting taxes, regulations and reducing the size of government spurs job growth. Also, studies back up the conclusion that keeping total spending below 25% is desirable for growing the economy. Any ideas of bailing out the economy by wild spending sprees seems foolishness. The only logical real-world way for individuals or businesses who are in trouble to rescue themselves is to become more valuable and cut back on expenses.
Much of the increase in government has taken place in the last 50 years. The free spending checks initiated by president Wilson, who ramped up and empowered the executive branch of governments authority, has been the hallmark of successive presidents since. FDR’s personalized heavy hand is not exclusive to him alone; all have led to ever increasing size of government.
Getting the government spending into perspective, by 1900 government spending was just 5% of Americas gross domestic production (GDP). Jumping ahead to 1950, the amount of total output of America’s production consumed by government was upped to 15%. In 1999 it was around 19%. Today, many feel it is out of control.
The scope and size of government metastasize to its present state creates a fascist type republic in that decisions become regulated and individual freedom dissipates. The ordinary citizen taxpayer becomes a slave paying for big government and is left with a reduced paycheck.
Heavily unionized, job secure government workers gets to retire after only 20 years service. They are eligible for pension checks, annuity checks and other lavish perks. Their counterpart non-government worker generally has to work 45 years before they are eligible for retirement and social security benefits. They have no job security. Many private sector jobs are much more dangerous than those faced by police, fireman and the military, yet they have to put in their 45 sweat before eligibility rolls around.
How one looks at the unemployment numbers tells a story that bears a little digging. For instance the March 2009 unemployment showed a 8.5% unemployment rate with 13.2 million collecting. Looking at the unofficial U-6 data for the report, reveals another story. Unemployed workers discouraged for more than a year are magically dropped from the role and if you factor that in you have real unemployment approaching the 20%
What have we learned? Not all facts provide by government are helpful and some are massaged. It is easy to lose sight of the big picture when looking at numbers alone. Those unemployed are essentially getting a paycheck from the government and need to be counted into the total size of government when estimating the size of government as well as everyone who draws a government sponsored check. The mere fact that those unemployed are getting a paycheck for a period of time should be stimulus enough for a liberal persuasions.
“I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation as the source of all authority in that nation.” wrote Thomas Jefferson. If that is the case, the government supposed to work for me. They answer to me. When do I get to vote for the size of government on the ballot? Article supplied by Personalized Checks
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