For people who prioritize balancing federal budgets, more IRS agents is a great investment. One of my dissertation advisors told me that the IRS is so "understaffed" that each new agent pays from themselves many times over.
So, you're probably right, but Canada might be closer to "optimal" staffing.
Sir, I ran a business for over 15 years. I can confirm the people who work at the CRA are lazy, morons. If employing a shitload of dummies who only take the job because of the benefits and cushiness of it is optimal then yes, CRA is highly optimal. Haha.
Not to mention the fact that anytime the government claims they are going to hire x amount of new agents to go after those wealthy tax cheats and corporations bending the rules and announces some magnificent additional tax revenue number it will produce, all that happens is that practically homeless kid that used to work for me gets his wages garnished because he worked his ass off and made a couple thousand more than his social assisted housing permitted. So he either needs to quit his job now or get kicked out of the small apartment he is sharing with 4 other guys on the system.
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Most likely they're going to go after small business owners.
My heavy use of quotation marks was meant to imply that I hate all of this, but from the statist's perspective, hiring those goons makes financial sense. At least it does in the US.
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Honestly in Canada I think it is more a make work project. I don't see these guys really going after anyone except the odd small fish here and there.
Remember the old Milton Friedman quote "If it's jobs you want give them spoons".
I think Trudeau has actually taken it a step further. Rather than saying "if it's jobs we want give them an abacus instead of a calculator" he has essentially said "if it's jobs we want, expect absolutely nothing of them".
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I'd certainly take that over our heavily armed partisan Gestapo.
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