Jeff Perren: The Size of the U.S. Federal Govt, Then and Now

By Jeff Perren from Shaving Leviathan.

According to Nick Schulz at AEI

    “In 1871… only 51,020 civilians worked for the federal government, of whom 36,696 were postal employees. The remaining 14,424 constituted the national government for a country whose population exceeded 40 million.”

So, while the size of the population has increased less than 10 times, the Federal leviathan has bloated a thousandfold. (Not counting lobbyists and other secondary parasites, of course.)

Somehow, it seems an unfair fight. But then I remember the words of Victor Hugo: "Not all the united armies can stand against an idea whose time has come." Judging by recent events, I'm laying my bet that a Renaissance of freedom in America is one such.