Det finns aldrig någon omnämnande av hur de kommer med pengarna. Varken i böcker eller i några JKR-intervjuer. Jag sökte efter "pengar", "finansiering", "skatt / skatter / beskattas", "ministeriet" och "regeringen". Noll relevanta träffar.
Det enda undantaget är en anteckning i OotP som Malfoy har stor tillgång och drar med ministeriet eftersom han har många orsaker:
'What private business have they got together, anyway?'
'Gold, I expect,' said Mr Weasley angrily. 'Malfoy's been giving generously to all sorts of things for years . . . gets him in with the right people . . . then he can ask favours . . . delay laws he doesn't want passed . . . oh, he's very well-connected, Lucius Malfoy.'
Något ironiskt, när JKR fick alla miljardairish själv, kan rubriker som detta lätt hittas:
LONDON (Reuters) - Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling has donated 1 million pounds ($1.83 million) to Britain's ruling Labor Party to provide a much-needed boost to Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he fights for political survival. (src: Reuters feed, 2008)
... och hon talade öppet om att vilja hindra Tories från att passera lagar som hon inte gillar, och använda sin kändisstatus för att sva folk för att rösta på Labour.
VARNING: Kontroversiell politisk analys:
Based on JKR's non-HP political writing (especially her essay on why she will never vote Tory), she belongs to a political/philosophical school of "money grows on trees, not comes from other people who are taxed". This was especially true when she was writing her first books (and she planned out all 7 books then) and didn't have much money.
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So for her, the question of what it takes to make a normal economy function (and especially, how government funding is obtained) is utterly unimportant and un-interesting. She sees government (in the real world) as a benevolent entity helping people, NOT an entity which takes money from some people by force and gives that money (after siphoning off some for itself) to others. Not too surprising considering that her life idol (after whom her daughter is named) was an avowed Communist.
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It's curious to note that in Harry Potter world, everyone with much money is evil/dark (ranging from rich Death Eaters to experimenting-bad-jinxes-on-first-years morally ambiguous Weasley twins), with the lone exception of Harry himself - the latter having been explained by Rowling herself as a Mary Sue moment "I did it because I never had enough money". She basically seems to firmly believe a standard Soviet doctrine of "You can't make money with honest work" - Weasleys vs. Malfoys being the prime example of that attitude, in many places in the books.
För att plagiera mitt eget separat svar - att missquote ett apokritt Tolkien-härledt arbete " Den sista Ringbäraren ": "Det är ganska svårt att analysera regeringarna i Ithilien, Faramir och Éowyn, på politiska eller ekonomiska villkor - Det verkar som om de varken hade politik eller ekonomi där borta, utan bara en oändlig romantisk ballad .
Potterverse har med andra ord inget ekonomiskt system som vi kan sammanhänga och logiskt avleda eller hitta, eftersom Rowling inte sätter in en.