NOT COLLECTING TAXES.

NOT COLLECTING TAXES. Without accountants, a modern government would not be able to collect taxes. Greece didn’t collect taxes. Michael Lewis quotes the Greek finance minister: “The first thing a government does in an election year is to pull the tax collectors off the streets.” Lewis concludes: “[The Greek tax system] mimicked the tax-collecting systems of an advanced economy—and employed a huge number of tax collectors—while it was in fact rigged to enable an entire society to cheat on their taxes.”