Imagine telling a business owner that there is no such thing as gross revenue. The price you charge your customers doesn’t matter, because what matters is net profit.<p>This is an effort at political persuasion, just as the concept of “tax gap” is a deliberately manufactured effort of political persuasion by the government. It’s a great phrase to focus your attention on something, isn’t it? Ask yourself what you’re focusing on, and whose interests are served by directing your focus.<p>In a sense, this article is correct. The only thing that matters is whether I have a dollar in my pocket to spend on anything I want.<p>From a different perspective, I am converting an irreplaceable hour of my brief existence into money so I can eat and sleep in a warm, dry place. This author is telling me to ignore the gauntlet of pickpockets (government included) that make my quest harder.<p>Hell, no. I will keep my eyes wide open. Just as I, as a business owner, keep my eyes wide open on my financial statements, from gross revenue and pricing to net after-tax profit.<p>Yes, after-tax profit is the only thing I can use to go buy a hamburger. But I don’t ignore everything else upstream from that.<p>The Ghost of Bernays is hard at work with this article.