And this is true of the spending of governments across the world—this is the U.S. government spending as a proportion of GDP, and you can see these ratchet effects where it goes up and it just never goes back down again. And now it’s at this crazy level of what, 50% or something?
It sounds like Net Outlays correspond to spending, so why is the graph below so different?
Good question. Part of the difference is I think the difference between total govt (state + federal) outlays and just federal outlays. But I don’t think that would explain all of the discrepancy.
Your question reminds me that I had a discussion with someone else who was skeptical about this graph, and made a note to dig deeper, but never got around to it. I’ll chase this up a bit now and see what I find.
It sounds like Net Outlays correspond to spending, so why is the graph below so different?
Good question. Part of the difference is I think the difference between total govt (state + federal) outlays and just federal outlays. But I don’t think that would explain all of the discrepancy.
Your question reminds me that I had a discussion with someone else who was skeptical about this graph, and made a note to dig deeper, but never got around to it. I’ll chase this up a bit now and see what I find.