The chapter also counters those who might see a growing federal workforce as an indication that government is getting too big. In 1988, when Ronald Reagan, that champion of small government, was president, there was one federal employee for every 110 residents. Twenty years later, the ratio was one to 155.
Assuming the above numbers are true, the fact that in 1988 there was one FED per 110 residents (notice they did not use the word citizens) and today there is one FED employee per 155 residents, the comparison ignores the tremendous strides made in computers during the past 20 years.
If one were to make a similar comparison in the private sector, they would see that employees have far greater responsibilities in terms of employee per dollar of sales today than 20 years ago due to the increase in computers and technology and tools.
You also have to take into account the fact that a thousands and thousands of Civil Servants have been replaced by contractors in the past 20 years. Fedzilla still pays for them with our tax dollars ... they're just not federal employees any more.
In 2006 there were 10.5 million people on federal contracts or working with federal grant money - and it's gone up since then. The ratio of people funded by Fedzilla per citizen hasn't gone down, it's gone up.
Actually there is a very simple reason for this and either the author is being disingenuous or ignorant. The size of the military has gone down considerably between Reagan and Obama. They are federal employees too.
The problem with the Feds is the number of people employed. There are so many layabouts in each office that would be fired in the private sector but whose poor performance gets covered up and the slack taken up by employees that actually care to see the job get done.