shadow bureaucracy  That’s the absurd title to a blog post over
at The Atlantic today. The writer claims that the U.S.
government is now the smallest it’s been since LBJ was
president. The article is making the rounds among leftists, who,
against all reason and common sense, have managed to convince
themselves that the US government is getting smaller.  The claim
is based on a calculation of total government employment as a
ratio of the total US population. Right off the bat we know that
comparing these ratios from 1968 and today will be off. This is
largely because in 1968, most people whose salaries were funded
by taxpayer sweat actually worked for the government. There
weren’t mercenaries shooting up foreigners back then, or an
enormous government-funded non-profit sector or legions of
“consultants” who are really just government employees making
extra-large salaries.  On top of this is the fact that
government size is not only measured in the number of government
employees. Better measures would include t