Some people do better from the federal government than others. Take Ida May Fuller. In 1940, Ida May received Social Security check #00-000-001, the very first in the program’s history. Ida May’s working career had almost ended by the time Social Security began, so she had paid just $24.75 in Social Security taxes and she got almost all of that back with her first check, which was for $22.54. Moreover, Ida May lived to be 100, so by the time she died in 1975, she had received a total of $22,888.92 in benefits.

You can see why Ida May is smiling. But will you be smiling from federal taxes and spending? After all, you will pay Social Security taxes throughout your working life, and what about the benefits? You can be fairly sure that unlike Ida May, you won’t receive almost a thousand times more than what you put in.

More generally, since about the mid-1950s, the federal government has spent about 20% of GDP and raised about 18% of GDP. That’s a lot of money, approximately $3.5 trillion in spending in 2013. Where does all that money come from? Where does it all go? And for how long can the U.S. government keep spending more than it raises in taxes?