Air Conditioning & Growth of Gov't

A key feature of the U.S. economy is the dramatic increase in expenditures by all levels of government beginning in the 20th century. At the national level, the U.S. government annually spent roughly $142 (in 2017 dollars) per capita from the 1790s to the 1910s compared to $11,500 per capita in 2017.1 Expenditure growth outpaced the growth in income as well as population, with U.S. government expenditures accounting ...