A commenter asked about historic federal spending. The meaningful comparison is spending as a percentage of GDP, so here it is.
As you can see it spiked during WWII, obviously, then came down and tended to ascend slowly until 1982, when it leveled off, then it fell from 1990 to 1998, during the administration of Bill Clinton. It rose sharply during the administration of George W. Bush, and then fell again under Barack Obama after a brief spike due to the financial crisis. It then rose sharply under Donald Trump, and has come back down just as sharply under Joe Biden. Right now it is higher than it has been since the end of WWII, thanks to the Covid 19 crisis and associated spending, but it's heading down and will soon be about where it was during the GW Bush years. Make of it what you will.
5 comments:
Spending doesn't mean much if you have the money. But that's not what's happening.
Instead, we're going into debt to maintain this level.
What's really dangerous is the debt to GDP ratio.
Right now, we're at about 120%...AND that might be a record.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEGDQ188S
Haha, that's pretty funny. That 120% number was the peak we hit during the Trump Administration in 2020. It's been going down steadily since then.
In my post, I didn't mention any party or president because rearranging the lounge chairs on a sinking ship isn't helpful no matter who's in charge. The national debt through deficit spending is becoming an existential threat that you're unwilling to acknowledge.
So, I'm calling bullshit on your partisan statement. All Democrats as well as the Trump administration were on board (bigly) with emergency spending for the Covid pandemic.
Tell me I'm wrong
We're in debt because we don't collect on the value our economy adds to individual wealth.
If Elon Musk had stayed in SA he'd be rich today but not one of the world's wealthiest. Same guy, same abilities, different country.
Shohei Ohtani is no better baseball player today than he was two years ago in Japan, but he's way better off because he's doing his thing here now.
How much would a Taylor Swift be worth in Somalia? Warren Buffet in Bulgaria?
American CEO's are compensated better here than in almost any other country.
How much of that multiplier effect due to our economy goes back to repay it?
I think CP's comment highlights the obscene concentration of wealth in the United States. The one who dies with the most toys wins.
When I lived in Spain I paid higher taxes, but I also had a better income, as did most people, because those at the top weren't obscenely wealthy, as they are in the United States. I didn't see homeless people all over the place, and my health insurance cost me nothing.
Since this country seems to be based on the gospel that profit is more important than anything else, it follows that obscene profit is to be desired. That's why we have the insane institution of public lotteries that award one person up to $2 billion, so that one individual's life can be fucked up obscenely. Those same winnings could be used to award 100,000 different people $20,000 each!
But that would just be too practical and rational. We must have obscenity! Obscene president, obscene speakers of the house, obscene wealth, obscene levels of gun ownership and murder.
But you can't say the word "shit" on television. That would be too obscene :-(
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