Most phones are sold below cost and the difference is recouped because the customer is obligated to stay with that provider for some period of time.

Their are two incentives for the customer to stick with that provider -

1) Locked phones - their phone becomes useless on another provider
2) Early termination fees - the customer has to pay a fee to leave

If you take away one of these, expect either the other to go up or the subsidized phone pricing to go away or at least go up.

Whether you think this law is a good idea or not, just remember that there will be consequences.

That's cool. Just don't make me pay taxes for a trash collection service that I don't use.

Exactly. This survey seems to compare the rate that the government pays a contractor versus the salary that an employee makes. Those are not the same because all the benefits you mentioned, plus overhead. It costs a lot more than salary to run a business -- office space, power, HR, management, legal fees, accountants, etc. I guarantee the actual consultant isn't getting nearly all of the money that the gov't is paying the contractor for his services. However, when the government pays an employee a salary, by definition he gets all of that money.