I think I’ve heard that the USA federal gov is bigger than in the past, as in controlling more of an American’s life than in its history. Is it like government revenue divided by gdp? What about minting?
US are actually a good example of the limit of small government. Not having a mandatory government owned health insurance show low taxes on paper. But average people and companies still need to pay a lot for health insurance. Replacing a tax, by a de facto mandatory payement still means that people don’t have disposable income.
Even in European democracies with high taxes and strong government the control on your life isn’t that big. Yes you may need a municipal permit rather than a HOA permission or may have a government employed University Dean telling you that you fail the medical school admission test rather than a private bank telling you the same. But in both cases, the government looks like the best option
The very idea of “big” and “small” government is right wing American framing to produce right wing American results. If you’re talking about abstract garbage you aren’t talking about whether an action is helpful or harmful, what results are good and bad, etc. The idea is a scam.
Thank you for the answer. Bingo: I have absolutely exposed myself to a lot of right media. As they would may want me to ask: aee isn’t a government that charges a 100% income tax bigger than one that charges a 50% one? I agree “big” isn’t well-defined, but I’m trying to get at the idea of a gov having a bigger influence on its subjects’ lives.
Thank you!
And the reason they want “small” government so much is what they are really after is being able to do more criminal activity, toxic pollution, price gouging, exploitation, collusion, monopolization, market control, tax evasion, you can continue with a hundred more filthy tactics they engage in.
When they say “small government” they mean “we want to steal cheat lie and exploit, and we want you to shut up and let us. That’s why we go into business.”
I guess you could look at governmental budget or number of employees, but raw size is quite a bad metric for overreach. The knowledge that one year a lot of money was spent inforcing laws tells you very little about the effects that has on the population as a whole.
To do that you’d need a good definition of what exactly overreach is, and you’d probably have to do a lot of work because I doubt anyone else had the exactl same definition.