December 18, 2017 9:34AM # Matt Damon in Downsizing By [Chris Edwards](https://www.cato.org/people/chris-edwards) --- SHARE The new science fiction movie *Downsizing* with Matt Damon opens at theaters this week. Wiki provides a summary: > Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to 5 inches (13 cm) tall and propose a *200-year* global transition from big to small, but with one catch: the procedure cannot be reversed. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to become small and move to a new downsized community—a choice that triggers life-changing adventures. To Paul’s horror and outrage, he finds out that Audrey backed out at the last second. After the couple understands that they do not have a future together, they divorce and Paul must now figure out how to start his life over in a completely different world. That sounds interesting. But I think the following tweaks would have improved the plot: > Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-spending, Cato social scientists discover how to shrink the federal government to 5 percent of GDP and propose a 20-year transition from big to small, but with one advantage: the procedure cannot be reversed. People soon realize how much further money goes in a world with a miniaturized Washington, and with the promise of a better life, most Americans abandon their partisan acrimony and embrace their newly empowered local communities—a choice that triggers life-changing adventures. To widespread horror and outrage, Americans find that a few big government zealots try to sabotage the peaceful transition. After the zealots understand that Americans want freedom, they emigrate to a completely different world to impose their ideas, which are divorced from reality. For this version, I would cast [Vince Vaughn](https://mic.com/articles/84425/9-extremely-successful-people-you-never-knew-were-libertarian#.y9uYwhP1N) instead of Matt Damon and [Julienne Davis](http://missliberty.com/actress-julienne-davis-comes-libertarianconservative/) instead of Kristen Wig. Anyway, while we are waiting for Hollywood to make *Downsizing 2* along these lines, we should ask policymakers to pursue real-life downsizing of the federal budget. [The proposals here](https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/plan-to-cut-federal-spending) would chop spending from 23 percent of GDP to 18 percent. More cuts would be needed to reach 5 percent, but remember that defense is only 3 percent of GDP, and other spending is less important. [Down​siz​ing​Gov​ern​ment​.org](https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/) discusses how to miniaturize federal agencies. Rather than shrinking bureaucrats to 5 inches tall, it proposes to eliminate their programs, allowing them to start over in the completely different world of the private sector. Cato’s new E‑book, [Downsizing Federal Government Spending](https://www.amazon.com/Downsizing-Federal-Government-Spending-Institute-ebook/dp/B0787MS87L/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513362171&sr=8-2&keywords=dOWNSIZING+THE+FEDERAL+government), includes essays by Cato scholars on how to divorce federal taxpayers from farm subsidies, infrastructure spending, and other programs that shrink their wallets. ##### Related Tags [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).