Wish I'd said that - October 28, 2015

“the optimal size of government is government that controls about 10 percent of national income…. Looking back at the period when Britain was ruling the world, at the time of Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1899, government spending in Britain was about 10 percent of the national income. The church, throughout the centuries, has always favoured tithing. That again is 10 percent. If you look at the experience of the United States, before the Great Depression, except in major wars, total government spending (federal, state, and local), never exceeded about 10 percent of national income. If you look at Hong Kong during its period of real economic freedom, before the Chinese took over, government spending tended to be about 10 to 15 percent of national income….  The size of government is determined not only by what’s recorded as government spending, but also by government rules and regulations. In the United States I would say that half of all spending is controlled by US governments at federal, state, and local levels.”

Milton Friedman (quoted in Fraser Forum May 2002)