Thursday, January 12, 2006
I hate bureaucrats
I mean, I REALLY hate them.
I have had it up to HERE with contradictory regulations. And this QotD by AnalogKid is le mot juste.
If I were asked to choose the date which marks the turning point on the road to the ultimate destruction of American industry, and the most infamous piece of legislation in American history, I would choose the year 1890 and the Sherman Act, which began that grotesque, irrational, malignant growth of unenforceable, uncompliable, unjudicable contradictions known as the antitrust laws.
Under the antitrust laws, a man becomes a criminal from the moment he goes into business, no matter what he does. If he complies with one of these laws, he faces criminal prosecution under several others. For instance, if he charges prices which some bureaucrats judge as too high, he can be prosecuted for monopoly, or, rather for a successful “intent to monopolize”; if he charges prices lower than those of his competitors, he can be prosecuted for “unfair competition” or “restraint of trade”; and if he charges the same prices as his competitors, he can be prosecuted for “collusion” or “conspiracy”.
Living here in California, there are laws to cover every possible action. I cannot conceive of a single activity where I am not required to be aware of the laws and how I need to be careful not to contravene them. And about half the time, I am in violation of one, no matter how careful I am. And so are most of you, if you bother to look. Even going to the corner market involves local, county, State and Federal regulations.
I propose that we institute a Legislative body whose only raison d’etre is to repeal laws, and I think it should only require a one-third affirmative vote to repeal any legislation. (Yes, I took that from Heinlein. Sue me.) Seriously, if a law is so unpopular that a third of us feel that it is a bad law, doesn’t it make sense that we would probably be better off without it?
And as far as contradictory regulations go, why not get rid of both of them?