We might be early, from how i understand the age of the universe. If we don’t great filter ourselves out of existence soon we may become the elder species. The universe is remarkably young

I think assuming they operate their economy like the US does has a high probability of leading to committing grave errors

Taxing churches just for being churches would be counter-productive. What needs to happen is the current set of rules regulating what counts as a church and what doesn’t needs to be tightened and enforced. There are tons of shit people running churches as their own personal profit machines and those need shut down. The Methodist churches built in every town in America, for example, are only barely hanging on by a thread and bring more good to their neighborhood than they do harm; their loss would be tragic.