It’s not news that governments and businesses take advantage of those who can’t or won’t do basic math. A good example is lotteries. Another recent example comes from a regulator of massage therapists, called the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario (CMTO). To justify a large increase in fees, CMTO is counting on its massage therapists being innumerate. Annual fees for massage therapists will be going from $598 to $785, a 31% increase. In their announcement of the rising fees , the first part of CMTO’s justification is as follows. “CMTO has not raised fees much beyond inflation in almost a decade (since 2009), while the size of our registrant base has increased by more than 40 percent.” Most people’s eyes glaze over at the sight of numbers, but it pays to think a little. Let’s pull this statement apart. If “CMTO has not raised fees much beyond inflation in almost a decade (since 2009),” you can guess what happened in 2009. CMTO increased registration fees by 29%, whic...