The past 35 years have witnessed an extraordinary explosion in the amount of social spending by many OECD countries.  Back in 1980, the OECD members spent 15.4 percent of GDP on public social programs.  In 2014, this reached 21.6 percent. Some members have always been socialist.  The Netherlands has been consistently spending 25 percent of its GDP on social expenditures since 1980.  Sweden is another one whose expenditures in this arena have always been very high (currently at more than 28 percent of GDP), and which have remained relatively unchanged over this time frame. No OECD member has seen a decline in social expenditures.  Some have seen massive increases.  In 1980, Portugal spent 9.6 percent of its GDP on public social programs.  Now that number is 25.2 percent.  Greece was at 10.3 percent in 1980. It currently sits at 24 percent. The story for the U.S. is also frightening, with the increase occurring almost entirely under...(Read Full Post)