The rapid growth of big government in the US

[mrswdk]

Government spending as % of net GDP:

2001 - 17.4%
2010 - 17.1%

Source: 数据来源 ㄧ 国际统汁年鉴2012

[john9blue]

what is the figure for 2000?

also, post an english source, or at least give us a link.

[crispybits]

http://ycharts.com/indicators/govt_spend_gdp

This seems to disagree with you

[BigBallinStalin]

Yeah, that Chinese source did seem too low.

[BigBallinStalin]

Here's total government spending (federal, States, local):




It's not weighted, so it'll seem a little larger, but it's not that much bigger.



2012 GDP ('real'): $14.9 trillion

So, roughly 6/14.9 = ~40%. 40% of the 2012 GDP was government spending. Used to be about 1% of GDP or so back in the day (1800-1917?)




http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp

[Lootifer]

What boggles me the most about the US GOvt spending is your healthcare (talking pre-obamacare here)

You guys spend more government money on healthcare in your hybrid private system than most western countries do who have public healthcare. Seems bizzare.

(And yes I accept the US has the best healthcare tech in the world, hands down, but isnt most of it funded privately?)

[BigBallinStalin]

If you setup more price controls, thereby inducing cuts in price (and quality), then I'd expect 'costs' (i.e. prices) for healthcare to drop. This may not necessarily be a good thing because the real cost is not fully reflected in accounting costs, and you'd likely get shortages in health care (thus, the necessity of queuing, which honestly is wasteful in this circumstance).