Can everyone work for government?

Reading recent letters makes it apparent that we have way too many diatribes against our president.

It also is apparent that the definition of taxpayers is being distorted.

Ultimately, government employees do not pay taxes. In the course of their employment, they receive 100 percent of their salaries from the government. The government receives 100 percent of its revenues from actual taxpayers. If an individual receives 100 percent of his or her salary from a government, the repayment of part of this salary is not taxation. It is working at a discount.

Though this idea may seem like nitpicking to the individual government employee, it is truly significant when it is examined as a matter of public policy. Government jobs are not productive jobs for an economy. However important they might be, every government job requires a payment from the private sector. I ask: can everybody work for the government? Of course not, because the government will then have no revenue to pay its workers.

I make the assumption that the vast majority of Trump haters are not aware of this basic fact of tax policy.

This story was originally published May 28, 2017 at 8:01 AM with the headline "Can everyone work for government?."