Quote Originally Posted by Hazir View Post
If you are inclined to agree with Randblade about the taxation of people employed by government what you are really saying is that you want government to raise more taxes from all non-government workers so that the government can play at being a regular employer. Meaning that there is a high price to be paid for make-believe uniformity. In my book that doesn't make it simple, efficient or effective.

Think of all that money in 'taxes paid by government workers' not winding up in the coffers of the state but staying in the pockets of people with productive jobs
It's a bit less effecient in theory, but I think the realities are that it's easier and safer to just say that there are no exemptions based on your employer. If there were exemptions, it would be abused, and people would try to use it to cheat, and this would happen no matter how air-tight you think things are. So the government has to either let that money vanish, or spend more money on enforcement. In the end, I think it's better just to keep things simple, even if the result is a bit silly with the government basically paying itself.