Motus Mentis

I’ve been busy, so for tonight, with the budget debate on everybody’s mind, just a brief item: a post by statistician William Briggs that has as its central feature a starkly simple graph, devoid of any ideological content. It merely plots the amount spent by the US government per capita, year by year, in inflation-adjusted dollars.

A log scale is needed on the money axis, because the rise is so steep: the amount has doubled — doubled! — in a single generation. It has risen a hundredfold in the last century. Make of that what you will.

Here.

(Hat tip: John D.)