Turns out this debate has been going on a long time. Maybe somebody knows other examples?
The Discourses on Salt and Iron (Chinese: 鹽鐵論; pinyin: Yán Tiě Lùn) was a debate held at the imperial court in 81 BCE on state policy during the Han dynasty in China. The previous emperor, Emperor Wu, had reversed the laissez-faire policies of his predecessors and imposed a wide variety of state interventions, such as creating monopolies on China’s salt and iron enterprises, price stabilization schemes, and taxes on capital. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourses_on_Salt_and_Iron
Tax farming was originally a Roman practice whereby the burden of tax collection was reassigned by the Roman State to private individuals or groups… The system was set up by Gaius Gracchus in 123 BC primarily to increase the efficiency of tax collection… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_farming#Roman_Empire
The actions of the publicani [tax-farmers] were fiercely criticised… The degradation of the role of private contracting coincided with the beginning of the rule of the emperors, during which the oligarchic power of the Senate had to give way for the autocratic rule of the Caesars, and a more centralised public civil service system replaced private contractors in implementing the most important parts of public policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicani#History
It’s not quite the same thing, but the latter half of this video on the fall of the Western Roman Empire talks about how the less centralized taxation system in the WRE led to it being replaced by numerous “mini-Romes,” while the East’s more centralized taxation system kept it intact longer (the first half is dunking on Musk so fun all around).
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
