What % of GDP is it appropriate for government to operate at

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kiryan
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What % of GDP is it appropriate for government to operate at

Postby kiryan » Fri Apr 22, 2011 7:13 pm

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

Its a self serving article with a graph that shows a marked increase in % of economy around the time Obama takes office, but its a good question even if it is obvious that government is an unflexible cost so when the economy takes a shit the % government consumes goes up.

What % of GDP is it appropriate for government to consume?

Another article I posted recently claimed that "regulation" consumed 1.7 trillion or roughly 11% of GDP. If you combine the too you get 35% (its unclear to me if any of those figures share costs).

Now add 16% for healthcare (and thats likely to keep growing) and we're up around 50%...

is that a problem? 50% of the economy just to provide for government, safety and healthcare? We still have huge costs for housing, food and transportation to consider as well. What portion of the economy do we get to use?
Teflor Lyorian
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Re: What % of GDP is it appropriate for government to operat

Postby Teflor Lyorian » Sun Apr 24, 2011 4:06 am

We get to enjoy government cheese.
"You see, the devil haunts a hungry man.
If you don’t wanna join him, you got to beat him."
- Kris Kristofferson (To Beat the Devil)
Vigis
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Re: What % of GDP is it appropriate for government to operat

Postby Vigis » Sun Apr 24, 2011 1:10 pm

Teflor Lyorian wrote:We get to enjoy government cheese.


Teflor - If you haven't eaten it, keep your trap shut. It tasted just fine when it was keeping me, my brother, and my sister fed.

To the point of the post, there is no perfect number. Just like a business, costs will fluctuate if the dependent variables change. Personally, I would cap it at 92% of expenditure as my experience has shown that 8% of margin is needed if a business is going to be successful. Our government needs to do 2 things: increase revenue and decrease voluntary contributions to other countries.
Nerox tells you 'Good deal, the other tanks I have don't wanna do it, and since your my special suicidal tank i figure you don't mind one bit!'

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Teflor Lyorian
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Re: What % of GDP is it appropriate for government to operat

Postby Teflor Lyorian » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:32 pm

Vigis wrote:
Teflor Lyorian wrote:We get to enjoy government cheese.


Teflor - If you haven't eaten it, keep your trap shut.

I'll keep my trap shut just a second after you keep yours, especially with dumbass remarks like that coming out of you.
"You see, the devil haunts a hungry man.
If you don’t wanna join him, you got to beat him."
- Kris Kristofferson (To Beat the Devil)

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