'U.S. Spends More Per Person than Portugal, Italy, Greece, or Spain'

[Dammy]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/us-spends-more-person-portugal-italy-greece-or-spain_645031.html

Obama wants to spend far more per person!

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Ah. Good. The meaning has been compressed out of it. Now, the Republican Senate Budget Committee has produced this chart. Are they part of Federal, State or local government? Or are they all three? Surely if they were federal it would make sense only to include the federal amounts since they aren't responsible for the other spending - or is it their intention to tell the State and local governments what they can spend on their people? It would be very interesting and informative to see the details - which is why they have been left out.

 

[robert l. bentham]

it also doesnt tell you what they include in that either... does that count roads too, schools, libraries, all the charities that get federal grant monies, the businesses that get start up revenue from the SBA, veterans care, all the science we get, etc... i mean twenty grand to be part of a mars space mission... geez.. how lucky are we? i'm gonna send uncle sam a check while i'm thinking about it...

http://congressionalresearch.com/RS20092/document.php?study=Public+Debt+Reduction+Fund

How do you make a contribution to reduce the debt?

There are two ways for you to make a contribution to reduce the debt:

• You can make a contribution online either by credit card, checking or savings account at Pay.gov
• You can write a check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it's a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public. Mail your check to:
  
  Attn Dept G
  Bureau of the Public Debt
  P. O. Box 2188
  Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188
• http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/resources/faq/faq_publicdebt.htm

 

[minator]

I wonder how it compares to France, Germany, The Netherlands or Scandinavian countries. I expect it'll be a different story.

 

[Glaucus]

That's a per person comparison. I wonder how it would look if it was a for person comparison.

Much of that money the US gov spends isn't going back to the people in any way. Much of that goes straight to foreign governments. And if we were to also remove the cost of the military I think it would show that the US spends very little on it's own people. Most of those other countries spend a lot because the state pays for medical care, which directly benefits the people.

Spending money isn't a bad thing so long as you get value in return. I'd say the US people aren't getting their money's worth.

 

[JoBBo]

I wonder how it compares to France, Germany, The Netherlands or Scandinavian countries. I expect it'll be a different story.

In the case of Germany, the per-person spending is about 32,000 USD. If you include healthcare expenditures (which may or may not be appropriate because Germany - like Switzerland or the Netherlands - does not technically have a single payer system but the government collects money for heavily regulated non-profit HMOs), the amount per capita is closer to 38,000 USD.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

If you didn't send $2400 to the Federal government in taxes (not State or local but Federal taxes) then you are freeloading on defense. You may as well be Canada.

You also spend about $250 a year to keep people in prison - that's about $200 more than you would be paying without the drug war.
US spending on healthcare is also out of line with other nations who spend less per capita and get more.