[lottin]

Do you mean not long ago when the government budget was 1% of GDP? Nowadays it's 40-60%, in developed countries. Large levels of public spending are a choice that we have made as a society, and the spending needs to be funded somehow.

[MrYellowP]

Large levels of public spending are a choice made by politicians, not society. Society does only little in regards to politics.

All we do is make a glorified X every few years, allowed to choose between the plague and cancer. All they do is wasting our money and making life worse for everyone except themselves, their peers and the rich. It's like this at least everywhere in the western world.

If the last year hasn't shown you that, and the last decades didn't either, then I don't know what to tell you.

[retrac]

I can't speak for elsewhere, but giant cuts to the largest public expenses (healthcare, public education, social welfare) would just be political suicide here, all but guaranteed loss in the next election.

[sokoloff]

That’s one of the concerns of groups who prefer government to be no larger than necessary: the larger it is (around 15% of Americans are directly employed), the more self-inflating it tends to become.

[retrac]

> That's one of the concerns of groups who prefer government to be no smaller than necessary: the smaller it is (around 15% of Americans are directly employed) the more self-deflating it tends to become.

I'm a pragmatist. The public sector seems the appropriate vehicle to deliver some things, and not for others.

[ur-whale]

> Large levels of public spending are a choice that we have made as a society

It most certainly isn't a choice we've made democratically.

Rather, it's a case of boiling the frog: a thousand tiny cuts inflicted by elected politicians over the very long term which has slowly led to the monster size leech our government has become.

[lottin]

No, it is a choice that we've made. For example, in Europe spending cuts after the 2007-2009 financial crisis were met with widespread protests.

[tobltobs]

No, most people are just stupid enough to elect the one promising the most.