Showing posts with label regulations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label regulations. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Too Much Government

We suffer from too much government at all levels:  local, state and Federal.

Anecdotal stories of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers acting like gauleiters abound.  Permits are required for a huge numbers of activities.  States impose licensing rules on numerous professions, mostly to keep out competition.  And local governments use zoning and purported health and safety issues to herd and control people's activities beyond any reason.

What prompted your writer to explode after a long absence?  Motivation - there are two I's in motivation.

An article in the weekly paper covering the town in which he lives described a zoning inspector acting in a rather authoritarian manner [to put the description politely] by issuing a cease and desist order to a business owner for ... selling one (1) whoopie pie.

This is not a joke, but perhaps could be an idea for a new Monty Python skit with the Spanish Inquisition.

An entire zoning board meeting was held with talk about clarifying letters, permits, and examining what it means to be a catering business vs. selling retail. 

And one could wonder how a zoning inspector learned of the sale.  Hmmm are there whoopie pie spies and informers around the center of the town?  I suppose the prompt was a complaint from a competitor.  Regulations to stifle competition is so common in America ... and it's un-American in my opinion.  We should relish freedom and people live and let live.

Let's get rid of most of government at all levels.  Just zero it out.

Keep only what's necessary for truly important group activities.

Let's have a new wave of freedom across the land.

Word of the Day

"Gauleiter" - noun [German] [$10] pronounces "gau - leiter" with "gau" to rhyme with "how" and "leiter" pronounced like "lighter".
Gauleiter means a head of a Nazi party administrative district.
Sentence:  Why do so many government officials in America act like Gauleiters?  And why do so many government police forces exist?  Are we slowly losing our freedom without noticing the big changes over the decades?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Reform VII. End Small Business Regulations.

The heavy hand - a ham hand - of government is stifling the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans. That ham hand is at the local level, the State level and the Federal level. Localities use regulations to prevent people from starting small business that might compete with favored groups, or impinge on some connected clique's environment. States use licensing laws and education requirements for "professions" to restrict competition. The Federal government has a huge panoply of regulation ready to land on any business once it grows to 25 or 50 employees. Yup, they tend to restrict hiring more people.

We need to get rid of all this regulation of the common man. We need a new burst of freedom for all of the common men and women.

The tax reforms I proposed are a start; they would get rid of all taxes on employments. The parallel reform we need is a removal off ALL business regulations and licensing (other than life threatening matters) below a very high threshold.

If someone scrapes together enough money to start a business, let him! If someone can get customers to come to him for some service, let him run that business without phony licensing or education requirements. For example, why does the SEC-FINRA regulate financial advisors? Word of mouth or a good private certification such as the CFA would do the job. Let the SEC-FINRA deal with frauds and ponzi-scams.

Why are real estate brokers burdened with silly "continuing education classes"? If they can't do the job, the customers would know it soon. Ditto for people cutting hair or helping the veterinarian treat dogs. Either the customer or the boss knows when the job is being done. Let the customers go to whom they want for services and goods. Let the business owner run his business.

Remember the "UL" label on electric goods? "UL" meant the device was tested by the Underwriters' Laboratories, a private testing service that made sure the device was safely constructed. It was created by the insurance industry.

Make the customers pay attention to the good or service he's getting. The ham hand of government is causing everyone to think the government is supposed to take care of everything and make everything work. It's time that responsibility is put onto the person running the business and the customer to check and make sure the service or good is suitable. They know better, or should know better, than some bureaucrat.

Get rid of almost all government regulations at all levels of government. Then let a thousand flowers bloom - the flowers that a new burst of small business entrepreneurs will bring.

The only regulations needed are for life threatening matters and for the ruling class of the rich and powerful - aka the hegemonic class - to prevent them from enslaving all of us and becoming aristocrats. That's a small group of people and corporations and institutions. Watch them closely; let everyone else be free.

Actions

None. waiting for better rates in the municipal bond market to trickle down to the bonds I'm seeing from Mrs. B's broker.

Word of the Day

"Autotelic" - adjective [$10]; a T. S. Eliot word
Autotelic means having or being a purpose in itself.
Sentence: Government is not autotelic; its purpose is to serve the people and protect them from invaders and oppressors.