How do you transfer welfare...?

[gxiang]

I'm reading a news report on "Americans paying taxes" and felt confused with the following information:

The main difference between the US and other countries is that Americans transfer less money among themselves for such things as Social Security and welfare. Look at government purchases of goods and services, mainly salaries, and the picture changes. On this score, Americans are not undertaxed at all. They allocate about 18% of the nation's resources to government, similar to the share in many other countries...

How do American "government purchases of goods and services, mainly salaries". does it mean "buy salaries" or "buy in the form of salaries"? Are nation's resources in the last sentence mean the Americans' salaries?

Thx in Advc.

[SoothingDave]

It means that a large part of the expenditures of the gov't are in paying salaries to gov't workers.

(The salaries are understood here to be the cost of "purchasing" the "services" of the workers.)

The last sentence is saying that the gov't collects revenue equal to 18% of the GDP.