Mary Meeker still thinks that the American economy is a business in need of an overhaul.
Ms. Meeker, the former Morgan Stanley star analyst turned venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, gained attention last year with a report on U.S.A. Inc., looking at the government as a corporation whose budget is sorely out of whack.
And, in an update to the plan presented at an investor conference in San Francisco last week, she argued that the problem has only gotten worse.
Ms. Meeker says that the country's expenses - think entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - outstripped revenue by 56 percent. That compares to a difference, or what she calls net margin, of just 7 percent 15 years ago. And tax breaks exceeded $1 trillion last year, which she argues accounted for 83 percent of the deficit in cash flow.
Ms. Meeker adds a few more points to her latest U.S.A. Inc. presentation as well. She cites a Pew Research Center poll fr om December that showed that 49 percent of adults aged 18 years to 29 years viewed socialism favorably. And she points out that the United States tax code contains 859 times more words than the Constitution.
“It's time for a “re-org†of U.S.A. Inc.,†she writes.
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