I got it down to 53% by 2020.
Fred's article leads to an important point about government owned capital; infrastructure. Without upgraded and properly maintained infrastructure, economies stagnate and wither. In the real estate trade, it's known as the "broken window effect", where deteriorating properties lower the over-all market value in a given area. In the huge scale, shitty roads, falling bridges, crumbling ports, inefficient electrical grids, and also, lately, the lack of reliable, affordable broadband internet slows and impedes production and distribution of goods and services, dampens consumer spending, lowers sales, increases unemployment, increases crime, shrinks the tax base, etc. in a downward spiral.
It's also important to remember that conservatives are dead wrong that taxation is money wasted. No. Tax money gets recirculated back into the private sector just like private money, and is an important energy source in driving economies. Only when autocrats hoard the money are taxes wasted. The US federal governments' purchases and contracts are worth a huge chunk of the GDP, as is the case for nearly all national governments around the world.
