Via Pravda (the Russian one, not the BBC) a very interesting article suggesting that the US government has become “an overgrown monstrosity” and reading through the examples given they make a very good argument to back up that assertion :

Today, the number of Americans who are able to financially survive without any reliance on the U.S. government whatsoever is declining at a staggering rate. Whether it is through direct handouts, entitlement programs, student loans, government bailouts, government contracts or direct employment, the truth is that now a solid majority of the American people are at least partially dependent on the federal government for their economic survival. The sad thing is that the majority of the American people say that there is too much government in their lives when opinion polls are taken, but if you try to take the government check that they are getting away from them those same people will scream bloody murder. But the truth is that it is getting to be really, really hard to be completely independent of the U.S. government economically. That is because the U.S. government has their hands in almost everything. The ideal of a “limited federal government” has long since faded away. Very few people seem to believe in it anymore. Instead, Americans today look to the federal government as the answer to all of our problems, as the provider of all of our needs, and as the regulator of every single detail of our lives.

The U.S. government has become the “Big Mother” that we all scramble to for a handout when we get into trouble.

When you sit down and really analyze it, you quickly realize that there is no way that the U.S. government can be extricated from the U.S. economy now. Instead of the free enterprise system that we once had in this country, today we have a situation where the U.S. government has become the very core of the economy. It is the hub around which everything else in the economy revolves.

From food stamps to mortgage payments, the article gives 11 reasons for the US governments apparent overbearing monstrosity and is well worth reading just for the detail given in the examples. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that the self proclaimed land of the free is fast becoming the foremost example of socialism in action just as the rest of the world is beginning to regret their socialist largesse.