A government can only be as successful as the people it governs. The measure of its success can be seen in the quality of life enjoyed by the population, achieved with a well-balanced budget. This budget is entirely financed by taxes imposed on the population, which are then allocated to various departments and programs. It goes without saying that how the government spends its money has a major influence on the economy, both short and long term. Although government spending has the potential to stimulate the economy, this essay will explain why the opposite outcome is more likely to occur in the short term. It will be demonstrated, by analyzing the flow of money and the economies of some countries, that public spending has little economic benefit and does not create new jobs. However, under the right circumstances, government spending can prove beneficial to a country's long-term economic growth. Before money can be spent, the government must first acquire it. A government's two options are either to raise taxes or to redistribute money internally, from one department to another. Of course, it is also possible to simply print more money, but that would inflate the dollar and is definitely not the correct way to increase your budget (Ahlseen). In any case, the money has to be borrowed from somewhere else, from the population or from the economy. When that money is later pumped back into the economy, its effects are not immediate. Instead, it has immediate negative effects on taxes, on the population's incentives to invest and on the private sector. It has been determined that taxes must be increased to provide the government with more money to spend. How r......middle of paper......economic freedom of a country. Because a government's income comes from taxes, countries with a high percentage of government spending tend to have lower freedom indices. The best place to put money is in the hands of people, who are able to spend it more effectively than the government. In this essay it has been shown that government spending does little to stimulate economic growth. This was demonstrated by explaining that government spending is simply redistributing money from within the economy and that government spending does not create new jobs. The case in which government spending can be beneficial was also explained. This could be achieved by investing in programs that will increase overall productivity in each sector. Government spending should be viewed in a capitalist manner. Lower public spending implies a freer population.