It's interesting how economists and sane people view taxes differently. Normal people think taxes are collected by the government to pay for things, which makes perfect sense because that's how everyone without their own mint uses money. But in (macro)economics, they actually view taxes as the destruction of money. To them it's just something the government has to do sometimes to keep inflation down. I guess both groups are right in their own way, but I wonder if the conceptual difference is some of what leads economists/capitalists to rage so hard whenever any government tries to raise taxes.