MaterialsPurchased?Spending by the population (Little Upsilon)

Materials Purchased
This is the cost of material, mainly consumption goods that were purchased by the country for use by the population. This should not be seen as government cost. It is purchased for the population and is paid for by the population.

Spending by the Population
This is the amount the population pays for all the materials (consumption goods, food etc) that was purchased by the government for the population.

Are these two lines basically the same thing?
If so, why are the values for each line different?

In my countries the Materials Purchased are greater than Spending by the population.

....er...look at the description. One says purchased by the POPULATION for the population...the other says purchased by the GOVERNMENT for the population.
Two different things, two different lines :D
Or at least that is what I see going on there...I may be wrong though :D

Most govt purchases are in multi-month blocks, arent they? 10 months of this, 10 months of that. Pop spending is just for that month.

Is that the disparity?

This is my understanding, some is minor speculation.

Materials Purchased: ALL "other" products without their own line items that go into the country stock.

Materials sold or used by Government:
Includes non-military products sold to world market from the country stock. More importantly, this includes all products, including military, whose cost is included under the "Profit & Loss" tables for Health, Education, Transportation, Government, and Defense. The purpose is to prevent these costs from being counted twice (once in materials purchased, once in profit/loss).

Spending by Population:
Some products consumed from the country stock are not tied to any facility maintenance (anything on the P&L sheet). They would still show up as a negative number on the Materials Purchased line, but are not intended to increase the cost of running a country. Rather, the population spends a portion of their income on these and the negative number from materials Purchased is offset by a positive number here. It is my belief that this data is part of a larger system that determines values such as contributions to investment fund, health, education, etc (speculation is that worker income isn't technically lost within the system). Regardless, this money comes from from worker income, not country income.

So... Materials Purchased is counterbalanced by the following two lines, not just one.

Also: my guess is that the purpose of the tips is to reassure rather than explain.