>So they resort to inflationary policies like deficit spending, manipulating interest rates, and "money printing". Don't forget all the hidden taxes like payro

>So they resort to inflationary policies like deficit spending, manipulating interest rates, and "money printing". Don't forget all the hidden taxes like payroll taxes ("It's totally the company paying the tax!") and sin taxes ("This is for your own benefit!"). These are all ways to "hide" how much taxes regular people have to pay. I think one of the most interesting charts to look at is "government spending as a percentage of GDP". Seeing it grow from about 10% to 55% from 1900 to today (in France) [0] makes you think about government/social spending and its future. It certainly cannot 'improve' the way it has over the past century -we're hitting diminishing returns after getting to 50%. Think about it: government spending going from 10% of GDP to 20% of GDP doubles the money available for the government, but people retain 80% instead of 90% of their money. Meanwhile going from 60% government spending of GDP to 70% only gives the government 16% more budget. Also, as an aside whenever you see US numbers in charts like this you have to figure out whether they're using federal government spending or federal + state, because it's only the latter that's comparable to most other countries (and it's typically about 50% more than federal spending). [0] https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/exp@FPP/USA/FRA https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/exp@FPP/USA/FRA