Saturday, September 10, 2011

One More Pop Wisdom Myth Many People Carry to the Voting Booth

Popular wisdom: the federal government is growing bigger and bigger and this is our problem. Except that it actually grows smaller and smaller. Further the best times for our economy were back when it was big.


Just like the best times in our nation's economic history were when we taxed the rich, so the best times were when we spent that money investing in things that were good for everyone, for society, for our nation.

Not so today. In Milton Friedman we trust. We believe that government is wasteful, that paying for government should be done by borrowing, and fear that government is growing voraciously when it is shrinking. Shrinking the good that government does as well.

(Oh, notice the census spikes every ten years. Cool!)

(Also, the gray areas are recessions by the technical definition of such.)