Strangulation By Government Regulation

Posted: 8/2/2014

Democracy In Crisis

The governments on every level in Western democracies have the built in tendency to promulgate many thousands of pages of regulation each year. Nobody, but experts really knows what is written there, but it affects all our daily lives in many ways. Regulations are comparable to a spider web that is becoming denser and denser. The relentless output of government regulations is simply staggering.

So far nothing has really stopped or reformed this constant deluge of ever more encroachment on individual freedom and responsibility.

Don’t be fooled, ever expanding bureaucracies and regulations are an ancient problem!

Remember Parkinson’s Law

I had almost forgotten the name of this empirical law dating back to the 1950s published in Singapore. A long time ago my father had told me about it and its operation.

I would posit it applies not only to the multiplication of government bureaucrats or the expansion of a bureaucracy, but also to their output, i.e. regulations.

Proposals For Reform

1. First, the U.S. Congress should mandate a complete moratorium on any new regulations
2. Second, the U.S. Congress should be tasked with reviewing regulations every so often and repeal any unnecessary or burdensome regulations or to order regulations for revision

I am sure there are even better proposals out there!