Indeed, and even more on an aggregate basis, the population also being much smaller.
> modern capitalism hadn’t had time to create
You're assuming that was created by modern capitalism, which I think is a major flaw. Capitalism contributed certainly, but so did democracy, freedom, rule of law, government investment, civil society, etc. etc. Just look at most of the education system, courts, security, roads, most of science, soldiers, etc etc etc.
> abundant, filled-with-medical-marvels lifestyle we enjoy today.
A great many, maybe most people in the US don't live in that world.
So, surely, you will agree the people who live the easiest and highest quality lives are people today, and lowering tax is actually fully indicative of increasing life expectancy and quality of life.
Be consistent.
I don't mean there's a 100% direct correlation, but that investment is needed for returns. If we don't invest in healthcare, we'll have worse health. If we don't invest in education, etc.
What returns? A very important part of "investing" is ensuring your losing positions are cut early and cut fast, its not continuously putting money into a black hole hoping one day the worst of the worst magically becomes the best of the best.
The rest of your comment is you being quite inconsistent, and frankly, a position that is full of lies.
The real way to measure the size of the state is % of GDP. This includes shadow taxes such as printing-induced inflation and deficit spending.
And guess what? The size of the state skyrocketed from a historic baseline of 1-2% to 35% in recent decades. Every now and then there's a war or a crisis and spending pops up like crazy, but it always used to go back down. Not anymore.
The only time it's been higher than this year is in WW2 and during Covid.