Well, I have a degree in economics, something more than "a few
courses".

Well, welcome to the "Land of Useless Degrees" -- as the owner of an English
degree, I can sympathize....

;-)

You're mixing up money, accounting, and wealth.

I wasn't mixing up anything -- I was simplifying for the sake of a Usenet
argument. If you want to get into macro-economic theory, most people here
(myself included) will quickly doze off.

The pseudo-"science" of economics is one of the main reasons I dropped my
Business major in my sophomore year. The only area of study I found that
was less scientific, perhaps, was sociology -- although it was a close race.

Let's keep it simple: People who work outside of the government pay all the
taxes that pay for the people's jobs who work INSIDE the government --
period. It doesn't much matter if it's stuff that SHOULD or COULD be done
by the private sector -- cuz it's just not happening.

Thus, any "taxes" paid by the people who work inside the government simply
don't exist, except on paper. It's all accounting smoke and mirrors.

What the government SHOULD do, to keep the system simple and honest, is to
simply pay their workers a straight wage, without any bogus taxes being
deducted. The only reason they DON'T do this, quite frankly, is that they'd
have to pay their workers (on paper) a good 20 to 30% less than their
equivalent job in the private sector.

This wouldn't help government recruitment, now would it?

Of course, when the public suddenly realized that these government workers
were taking home the exact same amount of money they were -- even though
they appeared to be paid 30% less -- the private sector workers might
finally realize just how unfairly they were being taxed.

This would soon lead to a popular (and probably violent) revolt -- which
isn't compatible with keeping the country running smoothly. Thus, the
ridiculous system of paying government workers 30% more -- just so they can
deduct 30% in taxes -- persists.

It's criminal. And it's the law.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"