Thursday, December 19, 2013

"Record High in U.S. Say Big Government Greatest Threat"

"Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for big government was 65% in 1999 and 2000. Big government has always topped big business and big labor, including in the initial asking in 1965, but just 35% named it at that time."

Gallup

16 comments:

bagoh20 said...

"He believes in banisters because he believes in his weakness and his fear."

The Dude said...

Yet Obama still rules...

KCFleming said...

Barack was as surprised as we were when he first read about this in the paper this morning.

Revenant said...

I wouldn't get your hopes up TOO much. Like the article notes, "big government" has been the leading concern for 50 years and yet it keeps getting bigger.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

I think Obama is genuinely surprised that big government is so incompetent. That's what made him so eminently unqualified for the office before he was elected, and his inability to learn the lesson keeps him unsuited for it today. He may actually understand it now, but just isn't a big enough man to admit the mistake and change course.

I'm Full of Soup said...

In the last five years, when annual deficits reached $1 Trillion at times, neither side, in the Imperial City, has shown much interest in cutting our ginormous fed govt- so I pretty much agree with Rev.

Calypso Facto said...

Dan Mitchell (of CATO) calls it "Obama's most significant accomplishment".

I guess I'll agree when I see it translated into votes...

The Dude said...

He is certainly the best gun salesman in history.

Rabel said...

Sorry for the off-topic, but I'm just amazed to learn that Pajamaboy went to school at UW-Madison.

It's a small world.

The Dude said...

That's funny.

That picture must have been taken prior to the trip to the ER.

ricpic said...

They're all against big government but don't take away the tit they're attached to.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Lol. Good! Then don't run for a job in it. Everything will be fine.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Like the article notes, "big government" has been the leading concern for 50 years and yet it keeps getting bigger.

Uh, yeah. So did the country. By 120 million, or a growth rate of more than 3% per year.


Such is the nature of a representative democratic republic. If you don't want the size of a service to keep up with its population/customer base, then the result is a less effective and totally bungling institution - which is precisely what you've got. And a less representative/more elitist one - also a result you must have wanted.

Pretty cool, huh?

edutcher said...

Actually, no.

Because this is a federal, not a democratic, republic and, as we keep seeing, size makes for less efficiency, not more.

Bureaucracies tend to want to perpetuate themselves and that makes for a far less efficient mechanism because history shows the smaller and more localized, the more responsive.

PS The American distrust of government kicks in again.

Commie overreach can be a wonderful thing.

Revenant said...

Uh, yeah. So did the country. By 120 million, or a growth rate of more than 3% per year.

Since 1963, the population has increased by 67%. Inflation-adjusted federal spending has increased by 307%.

In 1963, the US government spent a little under $4500 (in 2013 dollars) per American. Today it spends just under $11,000 per American. On a per-American basis, the government is over twice as big as it was fifty years ago.

Also, growing from 189 million (in '63) to 316 million today is an average population growth rate of slightly over 1% per year. A growth rate of 3% per year would have put our population at 850 million.

But hey, if math was your strong suit you wouldn't be arguing with me about this. :)