Friday, April 29, 2011

The cost of government

It’s far worse than you think. The problem is not just what the government collects through taxes and borrowing, but the massive regulatory cost, as Wayne Crews and Ryan Young of the Competitive Enterprise Institute point out in this article:
The federal government is on track to spend more than $3.5 trillion this year. What most people don't know is that government actually costs about 50 percent more than what it spends. That's because complying with federal regulation costs an additional $1.75 trillion - nearly an eighth of GDP. And almost none of that cost appears on the budget.
A lawyer’s paradise, no doubt, but a nightmare for producers and consumers.

3 comments:

JeffS said...

A lawyer's paradise? Not exclusively. A lot of bureaucrats add to this pile of poo and fluff, simply by demanding an ungodly amount of paperwork.

And a lot of the behind-the-scenes regulatory costs (e.g., procurement, or project management) can be quite stunning when brought out into the open.

Steve Skubinna said...

Even beyond that, as Instapundit has noted before, the massive expansion of regulations has ensured that nearly every one of us, at one time or another, is an unknowing felon.

Robert of Ottawa said...

The cost of government could escalate considerably in Canada.

Canadian Election Update
========================

Well, the hot news is that Jack! the Kneedipper is romping home in Quebec, devastating the separatist Bloc Quebecois; the "Orange Tide" the, 'Dipper's color, is swashing around Canada.

The Blue Team are still a few percentage points ahead of the Orange Team, with the Red Team (Liberals) way behind.

It cannot be emphasized enough that if the Blue Team doesn't get a majority, then socialist Jack! will become, eventually, the Prime Minister of Canada. They will do to Canada what the Kneedippers did to Ontario in the 1990s, when Bob Ray become Dipper provinical Premier, almost by accident. They wrecked the joint.

Ironically, Bob Ray will probably become leader of the Federal Red Team and become the deputy Prime Minister in the Coalition of Losers.

The election is on Monday; my hope is that the left/liberal vote will split and the BlueTeam wins in the close races and gets a majority.

Otherwise, Canada would just have voted for a hole in the head.