I agree the bottom line is important. However if you study history and look at today's China it is easy to see that unbridled Capitalism is not the utopia that some seem to believe it is in our country. Think of all the tainted food scandals there, the lack of worker safety, the air pollution, the work related diseases. In 2000 25% of all deaths were related to lung diseases resulting primarily from unchecked and unregulated industrial air pollution. It has gotten worse since then.
There is a needed balance between the freedom of corporations and the regulation of corporations that needs to be maintained. As with anything the pendulum swings back and forth. But to do totally away with regulations will bring much hardship to people in general, i.e. the US during the Robber Baron days, China today. And total regulation will result in the same, i.e. China under Mao, Russia under Communism. This is one of the lessons of history.
Ever heard of Rawesome foods? They sell raw milk and cheese among other things. They were raided by the Federal Government because, despite it being legal to sell in California and that customers must sign a waiver to buy such food, yet it is against our federal regulations. This is an ongoing court case, but essentially regulations have hurt this company.
In the case of China, they are not an unbridled capitalistic society. Rather, they are the opposite. Their businesses are propped up by the Government and central planning is essential to their economic growth. The problems in China are not a result of businesses, they are a direct result of the Government who centrally plans and grows their economy through horrible conditions for their employees.
No one is against basic health regulations, environmental regulations, or basic accounting regulations. However, the regulations passed in the last 20 years are not basic and have not solved any major problems, they have only shifted problems and helped prop up big business as a result. The food problems are not new, there have been outbreaks all my life, but they often went unreported because by the time we realized the problem, it was over. Our reporting mechanisms have improved so our response is quicker.
Our current system rewards big businesses. Two major regulations passed have proven this to be true. Clinton's Tobacco Regulation did very little to actually combat the problem they meant to solve according to their own projections, but it did make it much more difficult for small companies to compete and many were unable to comply with the regulations. The result was that the big Tobacco got bigger. The other were the toy regulations in the Bush Administration. Fisher Price fought for these regulations because their own accounting an increase in sales would result in more profits for them. Why would they get more sales? The regulations would strangle many small toy companies giving Fisher Price more market share.
We don't have a capitalistic economy. Rather, we have central planning and regulations that are designed to hurt small businesses. Believe it or not, every Monopoly in American history was protected and supported through the government, not through capitalism.
My solution? Get rid of all regulations that do not deal in the basic areas I mentioned above, stop all subsidies to all industries and companies, stop central planning by the federal government, and turn over regulations to the state.
I am all for accounting regulations, protecting the environment, and basic health and workplace rules. Yet, the regulations we get out of Washington are much more invasive than these regulations you outline.
