nd Britain have used taxation as tools to regulate the economy, although with vastly different outcomes. The United States has a far lower rate of taxation than the United Kingdom, but the social services provided by the American government are also lower. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, there was considerable pressure on politicians to lower the tax rate within the United States, and significant debate arose over how best to accomplish that and who would benefit from such tax cuts.
Although government spending during the Great Depression is often cited as an example of using government projects to stimulate the economy, it was in post World War II America that the government became a significant participant in a booming economy. During this time, the so-called military industrial complex, fueled by the Cold War, participated in projects ranging from highly secret military projects to the space program. Government spending in the United Kingdom continues to be used heavily in order to provide services (such as healthcare) as well as to stimulate the economy (through national defense projects and public works). As the United Kingdom becomes increasingly integrated into the European Union, there are likely to be significant changes in the role that the UK government plays in the economy of Britain. Already, there is considerable concern about the way in which the European Union currency (the euro) will be integrated in to the British way of life.
3. The laissez-faire economy espoused in the classical model suffered significant problems with the outbreak of World War I; the Depression of the 1930s reinforced the perception of the public that laissez-faire economies could not sustain themselves over long periods of time and that indeed, such economies might well be responsible for poor standards of living that were felt by many of the world's workers.
During the nineteenth century, the world underwent signif...