Does the USA need a perestroika?

[mrstickball]

highwaystar101 said:

HappySqurriel said:

Although the United States really needs major reductions in government spending (after all the municipal, state and the federal governments are all spending far more than they take in with little benefit for their citizens) I'm not so sure I would follow the example of the USSR ...

I know I'm going way off topic from the thread here, but this is my 2¢.

As an outside observer the main problem I can see with the United states government spending is not that it is too high, but that it is far too inefficiently spent.

For example. It seems as though regardless of how much money they plow into the school system, the results don't seem to reflect the investment. This graph shows that in 2003/04 the graduation rates were not consistent with the expenditure per students. It appears as though if this is the problem, then the question shouldn't be about how much is spent, but rather how efficiently and effectively it can be spent (With an eventual aim of controlling and limiting what is spent).

Welcome to America, Highway. I am glad you see this.

Even on a state level, it's very telling. Expenditures don't match results for students. Some states spend 30-40% less on education per student and provide the same results as a state that spends 20-30% over.

And here are graduation rates:

Notice there's no correlation between graduation rates and funding? Some areas spent much, get little (NY), some spend little and get much (UT) and some are in between.