Over-regulated America

I know many people who would disagree with this article.  They should reconsider:

But red tape in America is no laughing matter. The problem is not the rules that are self-evidently absurd. It is the ones that sound reasonable on their own but impose a huge burden collectively.

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Two forces make American laws too complex. One is hubris. Many lawmakers seem to believe that they can lay down rules to govern every eventuality. Examples range from the merely annoying (eg, a proposed code for nurseries in Colorado that specifies how many crayons each box must contain) to the delusional (eg, the conceit of Dodd-Frank that you can anticipate and ban every nasty trick financiers will dream up in the future). Far from preventing abuses, complexity creates loopholes that the shrewd can abuse with impunity.

The other force that makes American laws complex is lobbying. The government’s drive to micromanage so many activities creates a huge incentive for interest groups to push for special favours. When a bill is hundreds of pages long, it is not hard for congressmen to slip in clauses that benefit their chums and campaign donors. The health-care bill included tons of favours for the pushy. Congress’s last, failed attempt to regulate greenhouse gases was even worse.

Complexity costs money.

That is basically what it comes down to.  We have an increasing number of increasingly complex laws and regulations that are a drain on both the economy and society in general.  There is a reason that one of the fastest growing professional areas is in “compliance”, because no one can understand the regulations.  That is a major reason why businesses aren’t opening or expanding and the associated costs are driving jobs overseas. 

Earlier this week my friend at Carnifex blogged about how the Catholic Bishops should STFU about birth control, people want it they should supply it in his view, I disagreed on the basis that it is a decision between the Church and it’s employees, not the state.  I didn’t get into this at the time  but I also disagree on the basis that this is a costly regulation.  Yes it’s only $9.00/month, but multiply that by all the women they cover and it’s a substantial amount of money that isn’t available for charity or free health care through their hospitals or any number of other things.

That’s why things like this are important and why we can’t afford to F**k up this election.