America's Puny Investments in the Future as Stark Contrast to Investments of our Greatest Presidents Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR

1Q GDP equates to annual GDP of $26 trillion.

As a component of that, non-defense federal government investments are 4% of private investments.

That's incredibly puny if the game is to grow the economy.

Thomas Jefferson wanted a smaller federal government. (3rd president of the US, he died considering Virginia his country.) Yet even Jefferson was willing to invest in the future. Jefferson spent 2.5X the annual federal budget to make the Louisiana Purchase - an amazing investment for Jefferson (that represented needed financing for war for Napoleon). In the two generations after Jefferson's presidency, the US grew faster than any country in history.

Lincoln not only waged the costliest war in the nation's four score and seven years history, at the same time he funded an incredibly expensive transcontinental railroad and land grant colleges and other major investments. In the two generations after Lincoln's presidency, the US economy grew faster than any economy in history.

FDR increased government spending more than the GDP of most nations, with everything from social security and unemployment insurance to massive investments in the factories and science needed to win WWII. In the two generations after FDR, the US economy grew even more than it had after Lincoln's presidency.

Outside of defense, our national government is investing an amount that Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR would consider rounding errors. It shows a pathetic lack of interest in future potential and suggests that Americans are more driven by fear than hope.