[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.