ABSTRACT
Both the private sector and public-sector growth decline in the standard of living for many and the broken promises set in motion a process which led to overstatement of United States (U. S.) economic activity, a large demand for lawyers, and explosive growth of lotteries. In spending method economic activity is viewed as measure of demand for U. S. output in terms of four major components-consumption, investment, government purchases, and net exports. A method to pump up the reported level of economic activity is to hire more government employees at federal, state, and local levels, but it is very misleading as services produced are of questionable value. Overstatements of economic activity occur because of the entitlement mentality resulting from broken promises. Programs such as those contained in the Crime Bill appear to be primarily make-work programs aimed at pumping up reported economic activity, while nothing is produced.
