Originally Posted by Don Perignom View Post
Originally Posted by accountinquestion View Post
Was wondering if you had some other model to look at that wasn't from primitive days.
I think that's a tough question which I'm not qualified to answer.

I don't know how to measure. You can compare government revenue to GDP, but both of those inputs can be problematic to interpret. Big government is now very much in vogue. This Wikipedia article has a big table near the bottom:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...centage_of_GDP

Look back to 1900. USA at 2.7 was the smallest of any developed country except Japan at only 1.0. The biggest was Russia (!) at 23.8, followed by Greece and Germany.

Today, USA is middle of the pack with almost half the table above 50. Eventually the numbers must top out. They can't grow forever. Looking for clues of reversals, some of the LatAm leaders are talking tough -- particularly Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, and of course Javier Milei of Argentina. Possibly also some east Asian entities such as Singapore.

In some cases, I think reduced government could be facilitated by breakup, aka national divorce.

In many aspects, the 19th century was primitive compared to today, but those developments laid the groundwork for future success.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age

In United States history, the Gilded Age is a term coined by Mark Twain and used to refer roughly to the period from 1865 to 1904, which occurred between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and industrialization demanded an increasing unskilled labor force, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants.

The rapid expansion of industrialization led to real wage growth of 40% from 1860 to 1890 and spread across the increasing labor force.
This is interesting. I have a strong libertarian streak in me but the no federal income tax is a bit much. I am happy to take in your examples when I have more time but I also seem to recall the when the highest tax bracket was higher in terms of % then the US was measurably better off. I would need to read up again on the specifics though.

Tbh I'm suppprtive of what might be considered class warfare. At some point capitalism becomes another serfdom with some crazy ledger that is no longer serving people. It is kinda crazy to me how the system works and how it is sold. Trickle down and all that. Lol I haven't been buying that for many years now.