BIG Government

My readers will see me rail against the size, scope and power of government ad-nauseum. Many may wonder why I consider this to be such a prominent issue, especially when global living standards are at an all time high (despite what doom-mongers suggest).

Well, because government spending, across all countries from big to small, socialist to supposedly free-market, is now at an all time high. Especially in the supposedly capitalist US:

Things have been getting worse recently. In the first five years of the Bush regime, federal spending increased 45%.
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If we adjust the spending numbers to account for this inflation, real federal spending is 65 times larger than it was in 1930. The US population has more than doubled since 1930 and if we take the population changes into account, real per capita spending is 27 times higher than in 1930.

The article concludes with the following wise words:

Those of us making the case for liberty have logic, history, and morality on our side. Government intervention is immoral and should be stopped for that reason alone. However, the economic costs of the intervention are also important. Part of the appeal of freedom is that it leads to tremendously higher standards of living and these numbers show that government interventions that cause seemingly small amounts of harm, over time, impoverish a society.