The totality of compensation (benefits, taxes, salary) scales primarily with living standard, not with economic or political structure. If we moved those taxes

The totality of compensation (benefits, taxes, salary) scales primarily with living standard, not with economic or political structure. If we moved those taxes off income into sales, then you'd have to pay your workers 25-33% more for them to be able to buy the same stuff. If we moved healthcare and other benefits onto the employee, you'd be paying that money as extra salary, or else they're getting effectively less compensation. If we went with a libertarian model, you'd just be paying higher wages so that your employees could buy their current stuff and also hire their own police and fire companies (and you'd need to pay for your business's protection). That's not to say you couldn't trim some fat with other methods, but the only real ways to eliminate paying that 33% involve cutting your employees' standards of living. I'm not saying it's your job to care about that, but let's call a spade a spade here. That money isn't dead weight loss, it's money that straight up improves the quality of life of your employees, and is therefore compensation.