Quote:
Originally Posted by belsarius
I find it hilarious that the media is reporting how bad it has been over the past decade, but when you look at the actual graph as of 2020 growth was exactly the same for both sectors. So really it has only been since the private sector shed all of it's jobs that the government has stepped in to fill the employment void left by the crisis.
If people think things are bad for the economy now, imagine how much worse it could be without those jobs and the economic activity that comes with them. I'd rather have someone working for the government, earning money to circulate, than sitting home unemployed.
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It's also really not the best stat given that consultants exist. If you fire 10,000 government workers and have a consulting agency replace them, you've created private sector jobs while reducing public sector ones. But you likely haven't saved any money nor are you generating non-government economic growth.
A better stat would be the actual cost of goods and services for the federal government as a % of GDP; basically it excludes transfers, direct payments, defense, interest payments, etc. So it's mainly just the cost of running the federal government. By that metric, right now is pretty low historically:
1964: 3.5%
1974: 4.6%
1984: 4.4%
1994: 4.2%
2004: 3.7%
2014: 3.3%
2024: 3.6%