[MtnClimber]

GDP has not gone down, spending has gone way up. I think much of the spending increase is through NGOs and fraud.

[Dat]

I don't think outright fraud would account for most of it. There is a lot of overhead in the economy for jobs that don't meaningfully contribute. The recent AI boom hasn't really contributed much in terms of productivity, but has certainly eaten up hundreds of billions to trillions in terms of hardware and labor.

[erlayman]

Even J D Vance and his taskforce have only come up with 230 billion. We can still make the tough decisions now, before it becomes deeply painful, with fewer options, later.