Spending per GDP is the best actual metric I can come up with for visualizing the "size" or "power" of government in society. There's no 1:1 relationship with r

Spending per GDP is the best actual metric I can come up with for visualizing the "size" or "power" of government in society. There's no 1:1 relationship with regulation, but the two are surely correlated. In Rand's writing, government spending is equally detrimental to society - but you are correct that spending itself was not in question.