The cake is a... never mind. Small and efficient governments which create law and order are good for growth. They themselves do not create the growth, but they

The cake is a... never mind. Small and efficient governments which create law and order are good for growth. They themselves do not create the growth, but they create the necessary conditions for growth. Government spending on the other hand, with few exceptions, does not create new value and doesn't even create the conditions for new value. It can create additional demand. If the source of the spending is debt, it can be stimulating in the short term, but it rarely is, see Japan's attempts to stimulate through government spending. Big or huge governments almost certainly are a significant net drain on productivity.