> Reflexive "ugh govt" is a result of decades of Reagan-ite propaganda.
Looking at federal spending as a percentage of GDP [1] it seems we've been hovering around 20% for most of post-WW2. There was a huge spike for COVID and a smaller spike for the GFC. (It was pretty surprising this chart doesn't also show a huge spike for the response to 9/11.)
Pre-2020 spending was ~20% of GDP, pre-2018 was more like ~18% - 19%.
There's definitely more government spending than there used to be.
Looking at federal spending as a percentage of GDP [1] it seems we've been hovering around 20% for most of post-WW2. There was a huge spike for COVID and a smaller spike for the GFC. (It was pretty surprising this chart doesn't also show a huge spike for the response to 9/11.)
Pre-2020 spending was ~20% of GDP, pre-2018 was more like ~18% - 19%.
There's definitely more government spending than there used to be.
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S