The Empirical Evidence Against Big Government

Building on a previous mini-documentary that focused on theory, this video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation presents real-world data and research showing that the burden of government spending is far too high not only in the United States (where the Bush-Obama policies have increased the federal budget by more than 100 percent), but also in other nations where government budgets sometimes consume more than one-half of an economy's output.

[TheObjectiveReality]

Great video, as usual, Dan. Keep them coming, I'm sending them to all my Austrian friends and even Keynesian friends.

[pac]

In sum, what Gurdjiff was saying, was that everyone, would hold up, be responsible for, their own world and thus the larger world.Government is power. Bullies & psycho's gravitate towards power. So no matter how many times you kick all the "bad" people out of power they will always find new ways to come back, even if it takes their family's 1, 000 years to sneak back into governments, doesn't matter to them. Money & ALL governments are bad. Living in scarcity is bad. Following people is bad.

[pac]

Those who look for the world to be saved by a single teacher in a given time are shirking their own responsibility. They wait in the hope of a second coming with no effort on their part, indulging in the disease of tomorrow. To avoid a complete disaster it is necessary to achieve world harmony as soon as possible. It cannot be achieved by politics, philosophy, religion, or any organized movement that treats man in the mass. It can only be accomplished through the individual development of man.

[pac]

get them out of your way now. But think use YOUR head, be as positive & caring as you can be. At the same time stand up for your self by any means necessary to stop all of this false reality. Spread true knowledge its the best way too fight back, & do it now, please hurry. Don't feed into their fear language. One more thing. We need to stop all this labeling of eachother/everything and just learn to be. Just BE. Fulfill YOUR vessel. Only interact positively with other vessels.

[freedomgirl]

Excellent! You are arming us with facts we need. You show how government interjection is necessary to a certain point in encouraging a nation's economic prosperity. There is a point (and I believe we have passed that place in the U.S.) where government spending injures the nation's prosperity. America got where it is today through fierce independence and a can-do attitude. That now is being replaced with a nanny-state. That no one can fail here is going to ruin us all collectively.

[Skinski]

I am an aussie who has lived in the USA for the past 4 years. Australia is definitely a "big government" nation and the cost of the bureaucracy is reflected in the higher taxes both direct and indirect. The U.S. is heading that way with due to the war budget as well as the increase of the role of government (ie. socialised medicine).

[Slipknotyk]

@UBSCARED - I misunderstood your comment I thought your contention was that 20% were UNemployed.
I personally don't care if more people are employed at later ages. This adds to productivity, sir. Even old workers are appreciated in the labor force. Many of these whom are still employed are not so merely because they cannot afford retirement, but because they don't seek retirement, and are physically fit TO work.

[JonMercer]

Also an American, with the exact same story, except I was in the UK and Norway.

My standard of living went down when I moved back to the US. Both financial and quality of life. And believe me, it gives me no pleasure to say that, but it is a fact.

This video should have included Norway in their "evidence." HUGE government and a GDP that is $10, 000 per person higher than the US (Source, CIA World Factbook).

Socialist policies, balanced with a limited free market get the best results.

[MGX]

in the 21st century its not about whether govt itself should be big or small. It should be about the citizens responsibility to make govt work. govt is an important player in society however, public policies today, are the outcome of a complex set of interactions involving multiple groups and multiple interactions ultimately combining in unpredicatble ways. It no longer makes sense to think of public policies as the result of govt decision making processes. Govt is just one important player.

[parkestanley]

I'd love to get some recent videos from CATO institute, please send

[billyjoeallen]

Somalia actually improved by most metrics when it's central government collapsed. Property rights, when properly defined, do not need a state to be defended.

A monopoly government is the enemy of the free market always and everywhere.
Murray Rothbard did quite a lot of work to show that capitalism doesn't need it.

[JonMercer]

I didn't describe "socialism, ' but 'socialist policies.' If you believe in an idealogy (any idealogy), we are not likely to agree. As a pragmatist, I judge governments exactly as I do businesses--by the RESULTS they get. I don't care about labels or idealogies. Just results.

Having lived in many different countries, I can appreciate the pros/cons of all of them. Based on my experience, socialist / free market hybrids produce higher quality of life results than the US is currently getting.

[Sondre]

Thanks for these videos. How come they suddenly became so big? It seems like a just a few weeks ago they just got some hundrer views... ?

[pac]

People/Thing's that make you think/wonder. You can also YouTube them. - FREE YOUR MIND [CC] - Peter Joseph: "Where are we going?" Nov. 15th '09 [Part 1 of 4] - The Venus Project Lecture City University of London Pt 01 - Jiddu Krishnamurti - Gurdjieff's Mission - Cliff High WebBot - David Wilcox Pineal Gland - David Wilcock Zurich - The Golden Ratio 1.618 - Zeitgeistmovie

[rationalCrash]

nalejbank: you missed the point of the video. it presents data indicating what the "correct" size of government should be for optimizing economic prosperity. I agree liberty is enough of a reason to have small government, but the video certainly helps prove that capitalism is better than socialism (in economic terms).

[DreadLaw]

An interesting distinction, that probably shouldn't be made. While it is possible to show that liberty and economic arguments can be made separately, it is also a neccessity of the economic arguments that it would be impossible to have a good economic government and no liberty, because the very mesaure of good economics is based upon the concept of what people want and any suggestion of market failure is simpyl an accusation that people made the wrong decision.

[DerikSchneider]

"Big Government" has a couple versions. There's the more commonly know Socialist Democratic form of "Big Government" with a big Welfare State like you see in Europe. But there's also an Authoritarian Conservative form of "Big Government".

[TheKempqueen]

They may have more of a free market than us, but their governments are bigger so they take more money from the people... that chart said "Not including fiscal policy"...

[Gyrode]

I mean the 1970's, where the socialist govs. had high taxes, no growth, high unemployment etc...European countries have generally been liberalizing, since "Socialism" in the form you described failed.

[Shaunt]

The honest answer is government is not necessary for social, economic, etc. prosperity.