There is no more saddening picture of the progress of government
than this one (the second & third most depressing graphs are
here): This is the amount of money the federal government spent
in the name of each citizen, adjusted for inflation so that
everything is in constant dollars (the base year of 2008 matters
not; 2013 is an official forecast, and therefore too low). There
is no one picture which can capture the inexorable rise of
Leviathan, but this one is satisfactory. Each dollar spent is a
dollar taken from a citizen or created from vapor, but each
requires management and an apparatus for agreement,
acquiescence, and distribution between citizens and government.
If the federal government were as small now as it was in 1901,
it would today spend $169 for each citizen; this would imply a
budget of around $59 billion. Customs duties would have paid for
half of that. There would be no need of income tax. It spends
$11,630 now. The government is sixty-six times larger now than
in 1901. Sixty-six times more