Stock Viking, Ph.D. @stockviking - Twitter Profile

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.

Handre's tweet photo. 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.

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 10 hours ago

@CryptoMikli He's not wrong, but this is an example of hindsight bias.

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 10 hours ago

@MAnfilofyev My implication was that $NVDA will double from here. Just give it time. $400/share is roughly a $10T market cap.

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 10 hours ago

@AristotleTrade7 @longshortmkts I own a massive position in $NVDA. My cost basis is between $40 - $50/share. I feel fine.

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 10 hours ago

There may come a time when competition catches up to Nvidia, but if you're selling now (or not buying) because of that, you're way too early. Also, Nvidia has been very good at disproving that thesis. Don't forget that we are currently experiencing the "agentic AI revolution" and the build out of infrastructure required for that. Next comes the "physical AI revolution" with humanoid robots, autonomous cars, etc. That's when you're going to see Nvidia hit a $10T market cap and beyond. Put it this way, anyone that sells before $400 is leaving a lot of money on the table. The key is to have patience and let the stock get there. $NVDA

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 11 hours ago

@CapexAndChill His bad haircut is distracting me. I can't focus on what he's saying.

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 22 hours ago

@SPCX100T Near term anything can happen, but here's a fact that no one can deny. The SpaceX valuation is not based on earnings because they don't have any. So when you buy $SPCX, you're not investing, you're gambling.

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Stock Viking, Ph.D.

@StockViking

about 22 hours ago

Why on heavenly Earth would anyone care what Hunter Biden has to say about fiat and crypto, something he knows nothing about? Now, if he starts talking about hookers and coke, then I'll listen to what he's saying because that's something he knows a lot about. Filter out the noise. Focus on the signal. Time is precious.

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