rawna

Trades person, Father and Husband.

[Handre @Handre]

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.

[rawna @rawna1]

@JeromyYYC I just drove through Banff and Lake Louise. What's heading towards Calgary is probably the reason there's sandbags along memorial dr and by the sewage treatment plant. They're planning for something big.

[rawna @rawna1]

@Reil76 If you think the only reason Alberta wants to re negotiate is because of Oil, you're just not listening. Or maybe you are, but choosing to ignore the real reason.

[rawna @rawna1]

@Martyupnorth @Citizen004 Just like the federal NDP took over the Liberals, and the Liberals took over the Conservative Party.

[rawna @rawna1]

@ChrisMartzWX Even at his age he sounds amazing. He's one of a few artists that you know can't go on forever but wish they could.

[rawna @rawna1]

@RobWardCGY So what does this mean for people who have pools? Is the city going to pay for removal now?

[rawna @rawna1]

@TeamBruceRowe @RobWardCGY Their new water meters track consumption all day long now, by the hour. They know when you're using it.

[rawna @rawna1]

@RobWardCGY Now we know why the City Admin wants to monitor your water usage through the meters!! Right?? Nanny state!! This city won't change unless the un-elected bureaucrats are removed!! This is why we don't trust the City of Calgary!!

[rawna @rawna1]

@RobWardCGY The reason I don't trust City Administration! If this isn't a precursor to Peak billing, what is? Monitoring our water usage throughout the day!! Nany state or what!!!

[rawna @rawna1]

@RobWardCGY Something this important should have been put to a public plebiscite. Pause all blanket zoning requests until the people have spoken.

[rawna @rawna1]

@ShaneWenzel @CoryBMorgan What does that say about Edmonton voters?

[rawna @rawna1]

@RobWardCGY Rob, are they adding more resources to District 6 along with this change? If not the rest of the District is going to suffer. They already have to deal with Southland and Heritage stations.

[rawna @rawna1]

@ItsDeanBlundell The Carney poll would be correct if you remember they only polled Liberals.

[rawna @rawna1]

@kellyrudyk Have you any idea how many influential boards former Prime minister Jean Chretien sit's or sat on? This statement is ridiculous! I don't know of any former politicians that don't advise on corporate boards! NDP Liberal or Conservative!

[rawna @rawna1]

@jkenney Doesn't Rob Ashton earn around 250-300,000 per year?

[rawna @rawna1]

@FiftyFootNest New Brunswick also used to be rich in shipping and fishing. All that has been taken from you and given to Ontario, Quebec and Foreign fisheries. Yet no one fights for that. They sit back and accept transfer payments.

[rawna @rawna1]

@AmazingZoltan Does any NDP member know how much the President of the ILWU earn annually?

[rawna @rawna1]

@MrJoKeR604 Where do you think you got your moral code from?

[rawna @rawna1]

@innerchildca @paintwilldry @MrJoKeR604 No you haven't. Name some.

[rawna @rawna1]

@ToewsWenda @dfowleranimentr Most former Soviet states are doing better than they did while part of the USSR. You have no basis for this statement other than just your opinion.