On today’s show we are talking about what is driving the economy.

There was a time when I thought the fear over communism taking hold in the west was overblown. Yes, communism had taken hold in China, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. But we saw how that turned out. Communism is a recipe for economic stagnation. I have visited parts of Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, and mainland China. I’ve seen the remnants of communist economic policies and how it killed innovation and entrepreneurship. I’ve seen the drab grey concrete buildings with virtually no interior finishes. These cement caverns feel more like a war bunker than a home.

People who rail about communism are out of touch. Don’t they know that the Berlin Wall fell in 1989? Don’t they know that China opened up their economy to more free market forces? Have they not visited Shanghai and seen the advances that free market forces have brought to China?

We don’t need to worry about government dominating the economy here in North America. After all, we hear that consumer spending influences 70% of GDP. That statistic is quoted regularly.

So when you look at all layers of government, government spending in the US stood at 38% of GDP. In Canada, government spending at all levels is at 41% of GDP.

Communist China reports they are at 31% of GDP for all levels of government. Russia is at 36% of GDP.