While researching uzbekistan, I have stumbled on an interesting statistic:
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/taxes-and-other-revenuesThe "taxes and revenues by GDP" (i dub thee "TER") is a percentage determined by adding taxes, kind-of taxes (i.e. hospital insurance), grants (presumably by international funds) and net revenues from state-owned companies; and dividing this number by GDP. This number basically shows how much of the money made by the economy goes to the government. To my understanding, this does not include printing money, which all countries with a national currency do to a certain degree.
Now, why did the CIA find TER important (or interesting) enough to include it in their factbook?
Here are some interesting numbers:
The World average is 15%.
The communist Cuba has 58% TER. Only 2 nations have a higher TER than cuba: The tiny island nation Tuvalu (107% TER! How is that possible?) and the small city state Andorra (60% TER).
The United States has 12% TER.
However, Germany only has 11% TER. You would think this number would be higher in a country famous for its social welfare. Could this be because the US spends its money very inefficently, i.e. the inefficent healthcare system, the suburban sprawl, high rents for student debt/mortgages which go to rich people, the bloated military?
Logically, a higher TER would indicate that the state plays a larger role in the economy and the welfare of its citizens, whilst a lower TER implies that private persons (rich people and corporations) play a larger role for the economy and social welfare, right? But what if the state is run by oligarchs? Wouldn't a part of this money would get funneled corruptly into their own pockets? What if a country is a small developing nation dependant on international grants? What if a nation has so powerful corporations, they only need a small cut to finance their welfare spending? What if a nation prints 12 trillion moneys? There are a ton of variables which could skew TER's meaning.
In the case of measuring citizen's welfare, one could do this directly. In the case of how much powerful private interests are, one could use the gini coefficent to check how unequally money is distributed.
So, what does TER really mean? Does it mean nothing at all? What is its purpose?