A virtual buckeye toThe Virginia Rebel for reproducing this Lew Rockwell cartoon on the effects of governmental regulation on business.
But then the best satire is always based on the truth.
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I think it's an oversimplification. There is good regulation and there's bad regulation and it's never a perfect process.
When the Savings and Loans were deregulated under Reagan, taxpayers got stuck with a $200 billion plus for bailouts.
When the wrong parts of the energy industry was deregulated, we got Enron.
When the wrong parts of the financial industry were deregulated we got predatory loans, a mortgage crisis, and the Fed bailing out investment firms and Freddie and Fannie.
You have to have some regulation of business because without it, there is a tendency for business to externalize as many costs as possible and maximize profits at all costs. Then you wind up with burning rivers, sweatshops, child labor, monopolies, brutal tactics against the right of labor to organize (sidenote: unions do have their own problems but that's another subject). These are all things we've had at some point in history in America.
Do I believe all regulation is good and well thought out? No. It's definitely not. But some level is necessary to prevent exploitation.
However, it's very difficult to have an appropriate level of regulation when our government is so controlled by the corporate elite. Often, we end up with rules that big business can afford to comply with, but not small businesses. And the corporate elite want it that way.
Case in point: The Ohio Dept. of Agriculture put a $90 annual licensing fee on egg producers. It's required to sell eggs in Ohio, whether wholesale to a store or a farmers market or a CSA. To big egg producers (like Buckeye in Ohio) $90 is nothing. But to the small, independent farmer who only wants to keep a flock of 50 cage free hens s/he has to sell many dozens eggs just to pay the licensing fee--not counting all the other costs the farmer has. Read the book "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal" by Joe Salatin which can explain the counter-productive and hostile rules that really harm small farmers.
The government is definitely a part of the problem, but not the only part. Sometimes what we see government doing is a symptom of the bigger problem of the corporate elite having far too much influence over what the government does.
And, it's not just the federal government. Even in Ohio, the legislature has often walked all over local governments because the legislature is doing the bidding of the corporations that funds their campaigns.
In conclusion: yes, there is bad regulation. But not all regulation is bad. We should be careful about oversimplifying.
I am sure you will agree that regulation, particularly on the Federal level, has at one time or another affected business in each of the ways the three prisoners expressed.
I have been hanging out with some extreme libertarians recently, and have made to them the same arguments you make here. Upon reflection, what I find interesting about the libertarian mindset is that it seems to understand human nature in the conduct of government, but appears to completely ignore human nature in the conduct of private enterprise.
Finding the appropriate level of regulation, as you noted, is not easy; but the effort still has to be made.
Your analysis is fair and balanced, and I thank you for comenting.
Perhaps you're right about me needing to lighten up. I've become quite the curmudgeon lately when it comes to political subjects.
I do agree that federal (and state) regulation has in various instances (too many, in fact) done as you suggest.
I guess I was merely trying to make the point that care be taken to avoid generalizations on important issues such this one. But, sometimes I'm too long winded.
3 comments:
I think it's an oversimplification. There is good regulation and there's bad regulation and it's never a perfect process.
When the Savings and Loans were deregulated under Reagan, taxpayers got stuck with a $200 billion plus for bailouts.
When the wrong parts of the energy industry was deregulated, we got Enron.
When the wrong parts of the financial industry were deregulated we got predatory loans, a mortgage crisis, and the Fed bailing out investment firms and Freddie and Fannie.
You have to have some regulation of business because without it, there is a tendency for business to externalize as many costs as possible and maximize profits at all costs. Then you wind up with burning rivers, sweatshops, child labor, monopolies, brutal tactics against the right of labor to organize (sidenote: unions do have their own problems but that's another subject). These are all things we've had at some point in history in America.
Do I believe all regulation is good and well thought out? No. It's definitely not. But some level is necessary to prevent exploitation.
However, it's very difficult to have an appropriate level of regulation when our government is so controlled by the corporate elite. Often, we end up with rules that big business can afford to comply with, but not small businesses. And the corporate elite want it that way.
Case in point: The Ohio Dept. of Agriculture put a $90 annual licensing fee on egg producers. It's required to sell eggs in Ohio, whether wholesale to a store or a farmers market or a CSA. To big egg producers (like Buckeye in Ohio) $90 is nothing. But to the small, independent farmer who only wants to keep a flock of 50 cage free hens s/he has to sell many dozens eggs just to pay the licensing fee--not counting all the other costs the farmer has. Read the book "Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal" by Joe Salatin which can explain the counter-productive and hostile rules that really harm small farmers.
The government is definitely a part of the problem, but not the only part. Sometimes what we see government doing is a symptom of the bigger problem of the corporate elite having far too much influence over what the government does.
And, it's not just the federal government. Even in Ohio, the legislature has often walked all over local governments because the legislature is doing the bidding of the corporations that funds their campaigns.
In conclusion: yes, there is bad regulation. But not all regulation is bad. We should be careful about oversimplifying.
anonymous:
I think you need to lighten up a little.
I am sure you will agree that regulation, particularly on the Federal level, has at one time or another affected business in each of the ways the three prisoners expressed.
I have been hanging out with some extreme libertarians recently, and have made to them the same arguments you make here. Upon reflection, what I find interesting about the libertarian mindset is that it seems to understand human nature in the conduct of government, but appears to completely ignore human nature in the conduct of private enterprise.
Finding the appropriate level of regulation, as you noted, is not easy; but the effort still has to be made.
Your analysis is fair and balanced, and I thank you for comenting.
Perhaps you're right about me needing to lighten up. I've become quite the curmudgeon lately when it comes to political subjects.
I do agree that federal (and state) regulation has in various instances (too many, in fact) done as you suggest.
I guess I was merely trying to make the point that care be taken to avoid generalizations on important issues such this one. But, sometimes I'm too long winded.
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