On 2/18/2012 2:28 AM, Ian Kelly wrote:
Here's a neat table: government spending as a percentage of GDP, by
country.
http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2008/03/government-spending-as-percentage-of.html
The table is for "national government spending". That means spending by
the national government. The US has a lot of spending by state, county,
city, school, and special districts that is not included. Total
government spending in the US is about 40% of measured GDP. I *suspect*
that the US has a higher percentage of non-national government spending
than most other countries. For instance, government education spending
is about 6% of GDP and that is mostly non-national here but, I believe,
more national in some other countries.
There are also issues with the denominator. In the US, if someone works
at home without pay other than from a spouse, the value of the work is
*not* included in GDP. If the same person goes to work elsewhere and
hires someone to do the the same work around the home, that same work
*is* counted. So the movement of house-spouses into the paid workforce
has artificially inflated US GDP relative to, say, 50 years ago.
There are also issues of measuring and including the unofficial,
off-government books, 'underground' economy. That is relatively larger
in many countries than in the US. I have the strong impression that the
US IRS is much more diligent about ferreting out taxable income than the
equivalent in many other countries.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
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