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> “How many people work for government in the United States?” he asked, with the excitement of a child showing off a new toy, before displaying the answer. “Almost 24 million."

Directly, sure. Indirectly, a lot more. By indirectly, I mean companies that do government contract work.

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And how often are those contractors the target of budget cuts, and how often do nurses, teachers and so on end up bearing the brunt of them?

If you go by that approach then everyone in the society indirectly works for the govt in some way or the other.

Sure. But I was more thinking about people who directly work indirectly for the government, such as cleaners who work for a company that has them clean (the same) government offices (all the time). There are a lot of similar supporting services that have been privatized and "out-sourced" to external companies but which employees are practically working for the government.

correct! if you are paid in dollars, you are indirectly working for the government.

what is the purpose of taxes? to create unemployment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1uWVj0YJ3M

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