Federal per capita spending - history

[ronpaulitician]

Year-----Population (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h980.html)-----Federal Spending (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104753.html)--Federal Spending per capita
1790-----4 million------- $18 million----------$5
1910-----92 million------$694 million---------$8
1940-----142 million-----$9 billion------------$63
1950-----161 million-----$43 billion----------$267
1960-----189 million-----$92 billion----------$487
1970-----213 million-----$196 billion--------$920
1980-----237 million-----$591 billion--------$2,494
1990-----259 million-----$1 trillion-----------$3,861
2000-----291 million-----$2 trillion-----------$6,873
2006-----300 million-----$3 trillion-----------$10,000

I guess our per-capita federal spending in 2010 will be about $15,000.
2020, we'll probably spend about $25,000 per capita. By 2050, it'll be $100,000.

[fsk]

Look at it this way: The government stole a new car from each 2-person family each year.

[JohnCrabtree]

Are these figures inflation adjusted? either way I'm sure its a huge increase.

[ronpaulitician]

Are these figures inflation adjusted?
I don't think so.

[Gee]

1790-----4 million------- $18 million----------$5
1910-----92 million------$694 million---------$8
Wow!

From http://www.measuringworth.com:

In 1910, $5.00 from 1790 is worth:
$5.20 using the Consumer Price Index

Thats amazing. 120 years of virtually no federal government and no inflation. I didn't realize we'd done that well in that time period.

[Bryan]

Excellent post- an interesting point to note that in the first 120 years there the increase is from $5->$8. The 16th amendment (income tax) was ratified in 1913 and in the following 96 years we went from $8->$10,000. Just chance?

[Bryan]

Are these figures inflation adjusted?

Dr. Paul teaches us that the $1 the Fed started with in 1913 is now only worth $0.04-- so to adjust for inflation would mean the $10,000 is "only" $400, a 50x increase in spending ever since we were forced to fund the spending with our labor.