It was the future once again.
This time, everyone in the universe was an employee of the universe, and no-one knew it.
Taxes were high, sure, but they were easy to pay because the extra pay everyone received from the government was so high. On top of everyone's regular job, they were all workers for the government of the universe. Some were spies, some soldiers, some police and other public maintenance workers, some worked in factories secretly owned by the government.
The beauty was that no-one had a clue. Even little kids were under governmental control, through their parents or teachers or their other friends. Many people were spies, though they were unaware that the body they were spying for was the government. They thought they worked for a city or a planet or a company, but no, the government had them all in its clutches. Everyone thought they existed to serve their own needs, or the needs of their family, or their city, or continent, or planet, or solar system... but no. They were all mere pawns of the universal government, which controlled and manipulated every action of every individual with extreme subtlety. Such more local governments were entirely self-funded.
Everyone loved the government, when they remembered that it existed. No-one knew much about it, except that it was thought to be a democracy in which decisions were made by a very large senate which represented the entire galaxy fairly. Some people wanted to know more about the government, but there was no address to write or phone number to call. Any such problems with curiosity were dealt with by other unsuspecting government agents.
No-one could complain about the government because they didn't know it did anything. There was no tax, as such, although since all their labour served the government one might consider that there was 100% tax. But they didn't have enough information to complain. No-one knew how the government had come about. No-one knew where it was based, or how it operated.
And most importantly, no-one knew that there was no leader or bureaucracy, and that the only democratic senate by which they were ruled was themselves.