Mindy: Some possible avenues of thought.

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24295

Somebody wrote about whether all wizards received some kind of 
subsidy to help them support themselves.  This reminds me of the 
Native American Nations here in North America.  Each member of a 
given tribe, if they can prove they are above a certain percentage 
Navajo, Sioux, or whatever the tribe in question is, receives a share 
of the tribe's income each year, just for being them.  Many tribes 
have permission to do things like run casinos on reservations, which 
are very lucrative and greatly increase the amount each person in the 
tribe receives each year.

Then someone else said they didn't like the idea of all wizards being 
on the "dole," and I had a thought: If Ministry employees get a 
salary from their jobs (as they must, to support themselves) there 
must be some sort of wizard taxation system to finance the salaries, 
as well as pay for office supplies and other overhead.  I've been 
unable to figure out exactly how the Ministry would track wizards' 
incomes, however.  And wouldn't there have to be a Department of 
Wizard Taxation or some such thing?  Of course, they could do the 
whole thing through tariffs on goods, such as the things sold in 
Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, etc., but that wouldn't be as fair.  
Any thoughts?

--Barb