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Size of government graph

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Pamela McCorduck

Size of government graph

I inadvertently deleted the message with the size-of-government graph. Would whoever posted that please send to me? [hidden email]

Thanks.

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

Charles Dickens, opening lines of David Copperfield

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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Douglas Roberts-2

Re: Size of government graph

Sounds like you might have had a case of "itchy delete key finger", Pamela.

Quite understandable, given the recent FRIAM flood.

Here rec's message that has a link to the graph:

This graph shows the government employees in the US, all levels of government, divided by the population of the US.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?graph_id=87170

Color me surprised. The government/capita has been 0.0725+/-0.0025 since 1982. Variation in the last digit, 0.0001, represents ~31500 employees in our current population of ~315 million, so there's room for a lot of wiggle there. But it looks like a resource limited growth curve that met its limit 30 years ago and has danced around the limit since then.

This graph shows the federal government employees in the US divided by the population of the US.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?graph_id=87182

The federal/capita fell from 0.016 to 0.009 over these 60 years, most steeply under the Clinton administration. The only federal/capita increases in the last 60 years were during Johnson's "Great Society" and Reagan's administration. The most recent federal contraction started under Bush1 in 1988 and has brought us from 0.013 to 0.009 federal employees/capita. Obama's stimulus started to reverse the trend, but he's now running the leanest federal/capita in the last 60 years.

The rough constancy overall since 1988 is a crowd sourced result combining decisions made by 50 state and ~87000 local governments while the federal government shrank.

So, what's a big government? Are there any other national statistics for comparison?

-- rec --

On Sat, Sep 15, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Pamela McCorduck <[hidden email]> wrote:

I inadvertently deleted the message with the size-of-government graph. Would whoever posted that please send to me? [hidden email]

Thanks.

P.
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

Charles Dickens, opening lines of David Copperfield
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

--
Doug Roberts
[hidden email]
[hidden email]

http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins

505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell

Pamela McCorduck

Re: Size of government graph

thanks, Doug.

Honestly, I'm following the argument with great interest. Lack of time has prevented me from joining in, not lack of opinions.

On Sep 15, 2012, at 3:27 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote:

Sounds like you might have had a case of "itchy delete key finger", Pamela.

Quite understandable, given the recent FRIAM flood.

Here rec's message that has a link to the graph:
This graph shows the government employees in the US, all levels of government, divided by the population of the US.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?graph_id=87170

Color me surprised. The government/capita has been 0.0725+/-0.0025 since 1982. Variation in the last digit, 0.0001, represents ~31500 employees in our current population of ~315 million, so there's room for a lot of wiggle there. But it looks like a resource limited growth curve that met its limit 30 years ago and has danced around the limit since then.

This graph shows the federal government employees in the US divided by the population of the US.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?graph_id=87182

The federal/capita fell from 0.016 to 0.009 over these 60 years, most steeply under the Clinton administration. The only federal/capita increases in the last 60 years were during Johnson's "Great Society" and Reagan's administration. The most recent federal contraction started under Bush1 in 1988 and has brought us from 0.013 to 0.009 federal employees/capita. Obama's stimulus started to reverse the trend, but he's now running the leanest federal/capita in the last 60 years.

The rough constancy overall since 1988 is a crowd sourced result combining decisions made by 50 state and ~87000 local governments while the federal government shrank.

So, what's a big government? Are there any other national statistics for comparison?

-- rec --
On Sat, Sep 15, 2012 at 1:18 PM, Pamela McCorduck <[hidden email]> wrote:
I inadvertently deleted the message with the size-of-government graph. Would whoever posted that please send to me? [hidden email]

Thanks.

P.
"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

Charles Dickens, opening lines of David Copperfield
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
--
Doug Roberts
[hidden email]
[hidden email]
http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins

505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."

Charles Dickens, opening lines of David Copperfield