Thank you, you've made a very good point. I should have put that bit of the puzzle in place, and didn't catch it.
I agree you're right on the size of it, too. From the information I've seen, you're absolutely right about the shocking amount of money extraction in such systems. Well, so long as government *has* any money, given the rhetoric that everybody wants to throw out government--and I daresay somehow the corruptioneers will manage to maintain enough of a government for that.
It just drives it all the harder toward a rigidly segregated crime/police state, of course.
*gaaah!*
Do we have any counter-pressures massive enough to go mitigating against any of this?