Dr. James P. Wickstrom
Monday, July 11, 2011 The Insane Cost of Government ... by Larry Edelson |
The American's for Tax Reform Foundation's Cost of Government Day Report is a mindbender. Amongst the data it crunches, it finds that ...
The Cost of Government Day (COGD), the day of the calendar year on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burdens imposed by government on the federal, state, and local levels, is now August 19, the latest date ever recorded.
In simple language, it means that the average American must work 230 days, or 63% of the year, to pay for the full cost of government.That's pretty darn amazing. And frightening. It essentially means that 63% of your labor output belongs not to you and the loved ones you care for, but to Washington, D.C..
Federal spending: The average American worker has to labor for 104 days just to pay for federal spending, which consumes 28.6% of national income.
That compares to 90 days in 2008, a 15.5% increase. The chief increase in costs were the bailouts of the financial crisis. The bailouts cost the average American 14 days of worth of work to pay for them.
State and local spending: This is also costing us all, big time. In 2010 the average American had to work 52 days just to pay for state and local government expenditures.
That's up from 42.5 days in 1999. A whopping 22.3% increase in costs.
The regulatory costs of the federal government: Another shocker ― the average American worker must labor 48 days just to cover the costs of federal regulations.
And then there's ...
Another 26 days you must toil to pay the costs of state and local regulations.