A government agency audits a working family’s $2,500 childcare deduction with an automated algorithm. The real balance sheet of that extraction:

40 hours of uncompensated compliance labor: ~$2,500

Lost career development / overtime: ~$3,000

Chronic stress & health toll (QALY depreciation): ~$15,000

Stolen evenings with their kids: Priceless

Total damage to extract $2,500: Over $20,000 in real human value.

T4 working families carry the tax base because they can’t shelter income behind holding companies and don’t work under the table. Automated desk audits aren’t targeted enforcement—they are an extractive script running on autopilot through the living rooms of exhausted parents. Canada’s historic brain drain and collapse in happiness rankings aren’t mysterious. They are the direct result of turning honest, productive citizens into unpaid compliance clerks.

No wonder families are escaping this abusive system at record numbers. The government is happy to bring in student visa workers to fill the gap they are creating.