[lbo-talk] what government spending?

socialismorbarbarism socialismorbarbarism at gmail.com
Tue Oct 12 01:45:53 PDT 2010


James Heartfield: "It [public % of GDP] has grown to 43 per cent of GDP. Can that be right?"

Actually, it looks to be almost 44%, but yeah, it better be about right, because *something* has to cover that collapse in the private share of GDP that's implied by the same figures. Gosh, I wonder why that web site you linked to left those bits out (although it's easy enough to calculate...)

I've played with the data you sent, added a column (Private GDP, simply total - public share), and in the last columns, percent change from the previous year.

Year Total Priv GDP Pub GDP % Pub GDP Year GDP Change 1995 7414.70 4779.83 2634.87 35.5% Total Private Public 1996 7838.50 5119.07 2719.43 34.7% 1996 5.7% 7.1% 3.2% 1997 8332.40 5518.81 2813.59 33.8% 1997 6.3% 7.8% 3.5% 1998 8793.50 5870.11 2923.39 33.2% 1998 5.5% 6.4% 3.9% 1999 9353.50 6299.99 3053.51 32.6% 1999 6.4% 7.3% 4.5% 2000 9951.50 6711.32 3240.18 32.6% 2000 6.4% 6.5% 6.1% 2001 10286.20 6852.20 3434.00 33.4% 2001 3.4% 2.1% 6.0% 2002 10642.30 6944.55 3697.75 34.7% 2002 3.5% 1.3% 7.7% 2003 11142.10 7211.47 3930.63 35.3% 2003 4.7% 3.8% 6.3% 2004 11867.80 7740.14 4127.66 34.8% 2004 6.5% 7.3% 5.0% 2005 12638.40 8240.94 4397.46 34.8% 2005 6.5% 6.5% 6.5% 2006 13398.90 8700.59 4698.31 35.1% 2006 6.0% 5.6% 6.8% 2007 14077.60 9152.99 4924.61 35.0% 2007 5.1% 5.2% 4.8% 2008 14441.40 9106.15 5335.25 36.9% 2008 2.6% -0.5% 8.3% 2009 14258.20 8223.60 6034.60 42.3% 2009 -1.3% -9.7% 13.1% 2010 14623.90 8211.19 6412.71 43.9% 2010 2.6% -0.2% 6.3%

Put the last columns in an Excel line chart and it looks pretty dramatic--you can see the bifurcation, with gov't spending spiking up and private growth in GDP plummeting in 2009, but still in 2008 and 2010 showing clear differences from the earlier good [sic] years--although 2001-2002 was certainly less than perky.

To me, these figures scream out, a public share of 43.9% of GDP must still be grossly inadequate. Overall growth is seriously sick.

To me, these figures also scream out, recession my ass. Three years of < 3% growth, even with relatively large increases in government spending? If this isn't a depression, fuck 'em, their definition is worthless.

But of course to the folks at usgovernmentspending.com I guess it's all about that profligate out-of-control gummint.

On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 9:02 PM, James Heartfield <Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> What government spending? According to this website,
> http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/charts.html#copypaste it has grown to 43
> per cent of GDP. Can that be right?
>
>
.....
>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list