US state - Leviathan?

This from NR Online:

When we add up the true size of the federal workforce - civil servants, postal workers, military personnel, contractors, grantees, and bailed-out businesses - and add in state and local government employees - civil servants, teachers, firefighters, and police officers - we reach the astonishing figure of nearly 40 million Americans employed in some way by government. That means that about 17 percent of the American labor pool - one in every six workers - owes its living to the taxpayer.

In Britain formal state employees alone account for 20-21 percent of the labour force, without counting those whose livelihoods depend on the state. Over 9,000 British state employees earn more than the Prime Minister. Check out (interactive map here) what very few parts of Britain have less than the overall level of US state employment.

Now that's astonishing. Parasites weaken and eventually kill the host - but the individual parasites are just doing what comes naturally. To expect the state sector to reform itself is akin to hoping that lice will suck a little less blood and thus restrain their procreation. Ain't gonna happen.