Milton Friedman's greatest regret.
The federal government discovered the perfect crime in 1943: make employers collect taxes before workers ever see their paychecks. You think you earn $60,000 per year, but you actually earn $75,000 and hand over $15,000 to politicians without ever touching it. The psychological difference is enormous.
Before payroll withholding, Americans wrote quarterly checks directly to the Treasury. Picture yourself sitting at your kitchen table, writing a $3,750 check to the IRS every three months. The pain was immediate and visceral. Politicians faced constant pressure to justify every dollar because citizens felt the extraction in real time.
Withholding transforms this concrete loss into an abstract accounting entry. Your employer becomes an unpaid tax collector, and you never experience the actual cost of government. Worse, most people celebrate their tax refunds as government generosity rather than recognizing them as interest-free loans they provided to politicians. The Treasury collects your money throughout the year, spends it immediately, then returns your own cash and receives gratitude.
This system enables the explosion in government spending you witness today. Defense contractors billing $640 for toilet seats, agricultural subsidies for corn syrup, and congressional salaries for 535 people who rarely show up to work. When taxation feels painless, voters stop demanding accountability for how their money gets spent.
Milton Friedman helped design withholding as a wartime emergency measure and later called it his greatest regret. Free market economists recognized that the psychological pain of direct taxation creates political pressure for fiscal restraint. The temporary always becomes permanent in government hands, and the emergency justification disappears while the extraction mechanism remains forever.
If you believe free speech is for you but not your political opponents, you're illiberal.
If no contrary evidence could change your beliefs, you're a fundamentalist.
If you believe the state should punish those with contrary views, you're a totalitarian.
If you believe political opponents should be punished with violence or death, you're a terrorist.
Morena va por el control total de internet, redes sociales, radio y TV. Publicaron el dictamen de la #LeyCensura anoche a las 10:00 pm. La comisión fue hoy a las 10 am: 226 páginas que ni siquiera leyeron.
Esto no es un hecho aislado. Es parte de un plan de censura y control. Aquí lo explico.
Amigos del Almax, no insistáis, por mucho que insultéis o braméis Cataluña no existió políticamente hasta el 15 de febrero de 1519 cuando Carlos V, rey de España, entró en la ciudad de Barcelona e incorporó los condados catalanes como principado (provincia) y con el emblema de
- Hija: Mamá que significa ser políticamente correcto?
- Madre: Renuciar a tu propio criterio para conseguir la falsa aceptación de una mayoría de imbéciles.
"Presuntos palestinos de Hamás han ejecutado presuntamente a sangre fría...", dicen algunos medios españoles con delicada cautela jurídica. Y sí, pues eso. Hace tiempo escribí algo sobre presuntos y presuntas:
https://t.co/b7EjX49TKa
La FIFA ha suspendido a Rubiales por el intolerable acto machista. El mismo organismo que llevó el mundial del 2022 a un lugar donde se apedrea a las mujeres y van tapadas de cabeza a los pies.
Armengol acaba de anunciar que autorizará el uso de las lenguas cooficiales en el Congreso de los Diputados.
El pinganillo sólo se utiliza entre extranjeros.
Esto de hace un tiempo en @tv3cat
https://t.co/CF44c80xSN
The hedgehog's dilemma is a metaphor ‘bout the challenges of human intimacy. Describes a situation in which hedgehogs seek 2 move close to 1 another 2 share heat during cold weather. They must remain apart, however, as they cannot avoid hurting 1 another with their sharp spines.
Riqueza son los coches que uno no adquirió. Los diamantes que uno no se compró. Los relojes que uno no lleva, las prendas a las que se ha renunciado y los asientos en primera clase que uno se ha ahorrado.
Riqueza son los activos financieros que aún no se han convertido en cosas que se ven.
En español… DEJEN DE COMPRAR PENDEJADAS, inviertan, emprendan y tengan paciencia, piensen en sus hijos, en sus nietos, en el país.