What makes it unreliable (actually, more pointless) is that the chart isn't adjusted for inflation, population, or the size of the economy.
As if inflation was not a function government monetary policy and just as much a tax as a stamp tax on a pack of cigarettes.
http://ingrimayne.saintjoe.edu/econ/optional/HideTaxes.html
- Taxing with Inflation. Deficit financing and inflation are other ways to hide taxes.
Variations on these methods have a very ancient history.
See more ==> Google Search: "inflation tax"
Would it surprise you that, as a percentage of GDP, tax receipts are at their lowest since 1959 and that they really haven't varied much in the last 60 years?
Government should grow as fast as the economy? I don't think so:
For growth of government and taxation serves as a very heavy drag on the economy:
Economic Burden of Taxation
William A. Niskanen
Presented October 2003
Friedman Conference
Federal Reserve Bank Dallas page 6.
www.dallasfed.org/news/research/2003/03ftc_niskanen.pdf"Given that the elasticity c implicit in recent U.S. fiscal conditions is about 0.8 and the average tax rate is about 0.3, the marginal cost of government spending and taxes in the United States may be about $2.75 per additional dollar of tax revenue. One wonders whether there are any government programs for which the marginal value is that high. Given the estimate of the long-term elasticity c from the U.S. time-series data, the marginal cost of government spending and taxes may be as high as $4.50 at the current average tax rate. "
It really "shows" nothing.
To those who figure the inflated growth of government is a good thing perhaps.
As if inflation was not a function government monetary policy and just as much a tax as a stamp tax on a pack of cigarettes.So you were just trying to show how inflation was a tax?