Looks like it already blipped the 50% mark in WW2 and is quite close now. Seems to (visually) be leveling though.

I'm slightly surprised to see that the War On Terror didn't register as a visible discontinuity on the graph, even as a smaller one compared to WW2. I suppose the money would have been spent on the military anyway.

It looks like government spending has stabilized 40 years ago. Considering how much the economy got "worse" from the perspective of the average because China got more powerful since 2000 it's actually strange how the numbers remained stable.

You mean why I felt it was preposterous? Well allow me to demonstrate my naivety...

I would have expected 50% to be "socialist Europe" type spending, and indeed, a bit of googling reveals France is at about 60% of GDP right now, Germany at about 50%, Netherlands at 47%... That 60% of all income is determined by the policies and decision making of politicians, apparatchiks and bureaucrats is, I find, shockingly close to a planned economy.

So why preposterous? Because the US, on so many fronts, positions itself in contrast to Europe - free market ideology, small government rhetoric, fiscally conservative. Anyway, obviously, I was wrong.

The difference in military spending (which might otherwise be a likely suspect) is more like 3.5%ish (US) to 1-2%ish (Europe)

No. Not the whole US. This idea is not in majority. Some people do think so, but they don’t get to control the whole country.

It is in fact possible to evaluate a countries economy in isolation as well as comparatively globally … and America (and the rare EU anecdote) is not the only economy to compare to.

America’s issues don’t alleviate other country’s issues. The Chinese economy, population, and political/legal system are often very different so direct comparisons are usually only partially valuable.

Wanting to compare them isn’t the problem here by itself. It’s how every conversation gets derailed with “but America does x”. They both have their own problems.