I think I’ve heard that the USA federal gov is bigger than in the past, as in controlling more of an American’s life than in its history. Is it like government revenue divided by gdp? What about minting?
I guess you could look at governmental budget or number of employees, but raw size is quite a bad metric for overreach. The knowledge that one year a lot of money was spent inforcing laws tells you very little about the effects that has on the population as a whole.
To do that you’d need a good definition of what exactly overreach is, and you’d probably have to do a lot of work because I doubt anyone else had the exactl same definition.
The very idea of “big” and “small” government is right wing American framing to produce right wing American results. If you’re talking about abstract garbage you aren’t talking about whether an action is helpful or harmful, what results are good and bad, etc. The idea is a scam.
Thank you for the answer. Bingo: I have absolutely exposed myself to a lot of right media. As they would may want me to ask: aee isn’t a government that charges a 100% income tax bigger than one that charges a 50% one? I agree “big” isn’t well-defined, but I’m trying to get at the idea of a gov having a bigger influence on its subjects’ lives.