Hmm. You are right. All of the examples I was taught with used fictional examples of magical taxes. I though surely there must be somewhere... but no, just a cl

Hmm. You are right. All of the examples I was taught with used fictional examples of magical taxes. I though surely there must be somewhere... but no, just a clever fiction, repeated ad absurdum to make word problems for 5th graders and then glossed over by time until I took it for reality. Ouch. Harder still because with a moments reflection I should have seen its absurdity(1). But the step function thing was the point, not the taxes. I'll put in an edit and get that last bit ignored. (1) Be careful what you take as truth when young and don't rethink later.