The ratchet effect in politics.
Ask the goose who laid the golden egg. The goose is you and I. The egg is our productive contribution to the economy. Feathers are taxes and legislative constraints on our Freedoms of Informed Consent
“The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose so as to obtain the most feathers with the least hissing.”
―Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Let’s take a hatchet to the ratchet.
In 1961, the average Canadian family remitted 38% of annual earnings to all forms of taxation. Regulatory control of their personal choices was minimal because the government bureaucracy was much smaller than today. The remaining 62% of family earnings was enough to own a home and raise several children because the mother could stay home to establish a safe and comfortable environment for every member of the family. Male and female roles were established on the traditions and expectations that had worked best throughout the centuries. Churches were often as the center of the community both physically and socially, and the traditional understanding of family structure was well understood and accepted by all (at least in public). The pursuit of material luxuries took a back seat to the welfare of the family. Information sources were limited and generally trusted.
By 2020, the traditional family had been redefined and broadened to accept new “norms” such as gay marriage, two-income earners, outsourcing child care to others, the metric of 1.7 children per couple and the decline of religion as a moral and social anchor. Information sources are too numerous and politicized to be trustworthy, causing widespread suspicion and confusion. The average Canadian household remits 53% of annual earnings to all levels of government via all forms of ‘revue tools’- taxes, permits, licences, certificates, sur-taxes, tickets, fees and a planned inflation target set at 2%. The extra 15% (53 minus 38) largely explains why today’s youth cannot afford a home and that two household incomes are needed to even consider having a child or two. Distractions and propaganda (from both private and public sectors) are everywhere in society serving up messages that urge us to buy this, don’t consume that, and do what it means to be a good citizen according to current, politically-contrived social values. It's no wonder that mental illness is more prevalent than ever, and that substance abuse, social media platform use and video games are such popular forms of personal ‘escapism’.
Fear, depression and anxiety are the true pandemic of our age.
If the average citizen were to have an honest conversation about the root cause of the various forms of mental illness (anxiety and depression) that silently and privately afflicts so many of our citizens, I wonder how many would identify our governments and the “ratchet effect”.
Between 1961 and 2023, the public sector and its expensive “micromanagement on steroids” has placed everyone in an invisible jail cell with fear in the place of iron bars. What if, on January first of each year, you consciously acknowledged that the first 53% of your earnings that year would be reserved to pay you obligation to the state, and that only after that is paid, you begin to work for yourself.
Would you make a new years resolution to vote only for politicians who would commit to the long term goal of reduce government obligations from 53% to 1/3 of the average Canadian’s earning WITHOUT incurring more public debt?
Ratchet down is the best way forward.
To reach a 33% “revenue tools” rate, existing public institutions would need to shrink drastically. If 88% of all tax revenues cuutehtly pay the wages and benefits of all public servants, then the public spector workforce must would become much smaller. Voters would need to the set priority regarding which legislation to repeal or amend in order to remove levels of government overreach that has put our citizens in such a precarious place.
A hard cap on government spending.
New legislation is needed to impose the voting public’s “ratchet down effect” on every level of government to reduce pubic spending by 1% each year until a level of 33% is attained and maintained thereafter. If a government official exceeds the allocated department budget, he or she must be personally charged with embezzlement of public funds with no defence paid by public funds. There are few strong incentives to “play by the rule book” than being publicly arrested and facing jail time and job loss.
Another important cap must be to restrict the public debt-to-GDP ratio to under 33%. Debt spending must also be restricted solely to infrastructure investments. Any Minister of Finance who, via independent audits, is found guilty of exceeding this ratio must be fired from the job, forfeit pension benefits and face a lifetime ban on government employment.
If you are not sure that this “ratchet down” scenario is realistic, consider this. For decades, our governments have ratcheted up carbon taxes, regulations to cap greenhouse gas emissions, and public spending on climate change to over $60 billion in the past ten years. If they could achieve this…
I have no doubt that they can ratchet down their dependence of all manner of revenue tools and dramatically reduce the legislation and regulations they currently use to “baby sit” all 36 million Canadians.
Start squawking like a gaggle of geese.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert’ quote above provides a clue to how we can stop and reverse Canada’s decades-long slide to bigger, more expensive and excessively autocratic governments. The goal of shrinking our governments will be a bitter pill to swallow for most politicians, public officials and everyone who have become dependent on the “generousity” of the 53% of your earnings that your must forfeit each and every year. Do you feel empathy for their losses?
Yes, I expect that many of our law makers and civil servants may suffer from depression and anxiety if we squawk too loudly and for too long.
It's time to turn the fear tables on them and ratchet up the political heat until we restore greater Personal Responsibility and Inpendent Freedom to our citizens. Let’s empower them with the Freedoms of Informed Choice promised by Canada’s Bill of Rights and reverse the decades of growing oppression by the state.
The use of fear has worked well for the public authoritarians since 1961. It's their turn to be on the receiving end! After all, “What's good for the goose is good for the gander!”
