Regulations. We wanted national wealth and we got $40 trillion in regulations. http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/06/wh...cars-maybe-it-was-40-trillion-in-regulations/ quote: Maybe we regulated away the sci-fi future that our never-happened tiger years would have brought us. A 2013 study from economists John Dawson of Appalachian State University and John Seater of North Carolina State University, Federal Regulation and Aggregate Economic Growth, estimates that the past 50 years of federal regulations have reduced real GDP by roughly two percentage points a year, or nearly $40 trillion. That is, GDP at the end of 2011 would have been $53.9 trillion instead of $15.1 trillion if regulation had remained at its 1949 level, Imagine a US economy four times as big four times as wealthy as the one today. the cumulative impact of decades of post-New Deal regulation is also why US productivity growth and innovation downshifted in the 1970s there are costs, perhaps immense ones, as well as benefits to regulation. Taxcutter says: Somewhere about 1975 the costs of regulation began to outweigh the benefits. Thus the economy is weighed down with useless government interference.
Yes, I can imagine a Nation covered in pollution and robber barons running everything using slave labor, good thing regulations were passed to put a stop to it. Are some regulations over the top, sure, but many of the regulations the pawns of big buisness whine about are logical and for the good of all Americans including future generations. Always love how with some the all-mighty dollar trumps all else it is their GOD, thankfully the majority of Americans disagree with that BS. - - - Updated - - -
Oh gee and that's different from now exactly how? Oh that's right the Robber barons are now government employees in everything but name...
Uh no, the pawns of Big Business LIKE regulations. Regulations protect their market share, as it's harder for smaller, less-politically involved competitors to stay afloat. They pay a little more themselves complying sure, but for them it's like paying for assurances that no one will unseat them. For instance, H & R block is supporting the IRS's move to require more training and accreditation for Tax preparers. Why? Because it forces people like this out of business.
I keep hearing this hostility of regulations from posters such as you. I just have one simple question. Just what exactly are YOU doing or are planning to do to make money that will be compromised by regulation. Not generalities, not "Well my Dad said...", but specifics about YOUR financial activities.
Did France conquer America somewhere between 1833 and 2013? Alexis De Toqueville might think so. In De Toquevilles day Americans looked to voluntary associations to do what needed to be done and abhorred government. At the same time the French were utterly dependent on government. The French today havent changed but America sure has. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324021104578551291160259734.html And all this regulation comes at a fearsome price. Our prosperity. "...I can imagine a Nation covered in pollution and robber barons running everything using slave labor..." Taxcutter asks: Is that how you would describe America under JFK?
Nope, that is how I would describe America under the total control of the right and big business (one in the same).
America under JFK had a very tiny fraction of today's regulations. Was that America under the total control of the right and big business?
Let's just look at Osha shall we? By the time the government establish OSHA workplace accidents had been in decline for more than forty years. Most of the Major work place safety Issues had been long since resolved and that left OSHA basically picking at nits. Belt guards on machines that didn't need them, rules about where to put coat hooks on bathroom stalls, and that sort of thing. Most of the rules didn't make anyone safer but they did give bureaucrats something to do and that seems to have been the primary raison d'etre for a lot of them. EPA might have been useful in it's early days but now theya re a pack of renegade (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)s that seem bound and determined to make sure almost no one ever builds anything anywhere that hasn't already been uilt on and that is no guarantor. Even when they lose in court they will continue to harrass people.
OSHA and EPA had a role to play early in their existence, but they cannot admit they have won their battles and are no longer useful to America. They pick smaller and smaller nits and impose ruinous and annoying costs on the economy. Time for sunset.
You can cherry pick information and make it say what you want it to, for example: In 2012 the top regular income tax bracket was 35%, 50 years ago in 1962 it was 91% (A) In 2012 the corporate tax rate was 35%, in 1962 it was 52% (B) Imagine how much lower the national debt would be today if we had continued to collect taxes at those rates. (A) Find the Data.org (B) World Tax Database
All right, you whining wimps who claim OSHA keeps people from getting rich, put up or shut up. Name an OSHA rule that makes no sense and costs money and prevents a business from succeeding. Be specific.