Okay. I'll consider that viewpoint. My local peeps discussing policy (eg tax breaks for job creators) ask similar questions, like if current policies achieve the desired outcomes. I'm all about pragmatic incentives; aka what ever works.

Meanwhile, I'm still chewing on two other notions.

"Taxes" is the government's way to stimulate demand for money. Kinda flips the model on its head, reversing the flow of information, which is not yet intuitive for me.

Taxes and procurement are just means to transfer wealth.