The Case For Regulation - Part 1

James Madison once said, “What is government itself but the greatest of all reflection on human nature?  If men were angels, no government would be necessary.  If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.”

In our country today, we are blessed with many ethical and dedicated people in business and industry.  People who seek to do the right thing, treat their employees fairly, create good products and stand by them, and deal honestly with their customers.  We do not often hear about what they do, as they are usually overshadowed in the news headlines by the self-serving crooks and frauds who corrupt their professions.  But it is these ethical ones that we should respect, acknowledge and reward with our business whenever we have the choice of our suppliers.

For the all-too-many others, those who are not angels, we should rightly express our contempt and seek to put them out of business and/or hold them accountable as appropriate.  Unfortunately, in our complex, multi-layered business structures of today, it is near impossible for an individual American to identify such miscreants, let alone take effective action to protect or remedy such malfeasance.  Business has gotten too large and commanding, with too many layers in their hierarchies, and with too many links in their supply and distribution chain, to peel them apart and see what is truly happening inside them.  Hence government is the only real counterweight of sufficient size to defend against those businesspeople who act irresponsibly.

Many businesspeople complain loudly today about “government intrusion,” with regulation being a primary object of their complaint.  They claim that if we would just get rid of “unnecessary and unneeded” government regulations, supposedly our economy would be booming again, jobs would be plentiful, and all would be well across the land.  To which I emphatically reply, “horse hockey.”  Yes, there are a very few I would be willing to trust to act on their own for my well-being.  But the overall track record speaks a different story, and thus far I choose to err on the side of prevention rather than cure.

Many rail against the Environmental Protection Agency.  But I have seen the raw sewage emptying into our waterways, the beaches closed due to disease-infested water.  I have seen the residue of greasy film and grime on my window sills from the smog in the air.  I have seen pristine lands and forests disappear under the bulldozers’ wake and developers’ callous disregard, and the scars of strip mines dug in the name of “progress.”  I have seen the smoke from automobile engines and power plant smokestacks.  I have seen the trash littering the highways, and the toxic chemicals poured into the ground without regard for the runoff into people’s property and their crops.  And so I say “NO thank you” to the people who have perpetrated these actions, and “YES, thank you” to the government agencies who have worked to stop these abuses.

I have seen the faces of coal miners caked in black as they emerge from their deep pits, gasping for oxygen due to black lung disease.  I have seen factory workers with mis-shapened bodies from standing on the assembly or food production lines doing physically repetitive tasks without relief or concern from the front office.  I have seen migrant farm workers living in squalor, and the working poor who still cannot earn enough of a wage to provide a decent standard of living for their families.  And I say “thank you” to those government agencies who have made our workplace and labor practices safer.

I have seen fields of cows crushed against each other, standing in mud and waste slop at troughs of corn intended to fatten them up – more fat and weight for higher, faster profits.  Or similar rows of chickens in narrow cages for higher yields per square foot.  We hear food alerts of chemical or bacterial infections on our “fresh” produce, and see grocery shelves cleared out but not before deaths are recorded.  We read about the concrete powders inserted into baby formula and the carcinogens blended into construction drywall so that Chinese manufacturers can increase profit margins.  We find out after-the-fact that something called “pink slime” is automatically added to our hamburger meat; seafood is now “grown” in small, filthy tanks instead of caught from the ocean; milk and grains have been genetically modified so that what we think we are buying is not what we are actually getting.  So I say “thank you” to the Food and Drug Administration and others for stopping such activities when they can.  Or at least for forcing producers to label their products with the truth of where they came from and are actually made of – a truth that the businessperson did not care to honestly and voluntarily tell me.

The list can go on and on with many other government agencies and the oversight that they do.  Can regulation be too exhaustive and overdone?  Absolutely yes.  Especially when regulations go too deep, or are not properly proportionally “scaled” among small, medium, very large, and multi-national  companies.  One-size fits all does not fit all.  Regulations need to be well-balanced, and oftentimes they are not.  But as much as I personally despise rules and regulations on me set by outsiders – I am too freakin’ a radical independent at heart – right now I do not trust the alternative of deregulation very much, or companies operating on the honor system.  How do we think we got into our current mess?

I have heard several CEOs of multi-national corporations complain that they can do business faster and easier in China than the U.S., implying that our government is unwarrantingly limiting their economic potential.  I actually have no doubt that they can do business easier in China.  A company that is used to telling people what to do should be comfortable working with a dictatorial government that treats its people the same way and simply tells them where a plant will be put without meddlesome public discussion.  China has a peasant labor force willing to leave their homes and families for months at a time, live barracks-style in factory dormitories, work for $1/hour in 12-hour shifts – including younger children – all with no ability to complain.  But China will also steal companies’ copyrights and insist on getting their trade and manufacturing secrets, and if you do not acquiesce then they will freeze you out.  And in those instances, to whom do these businesspeople turn to for help?  Their supposedly interfering federal government.

No, the price of doing business as China does is way too high.  We lived in such primitive economic times 100+ years ago, and decided that profit alone is not enough.  Socially responsible and legal profit also matter.  Until men prove that they are in fact responsible angels, I will opt for constraint on them.  And so for “promoting the general welfare” and providing for our “common defense” against corporate abuse when it occurs, once again I say “Thank You” to those government regulations and regulators who help to keep the needed balance we very much need to have.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. observed, “It may be true that the law cannot change the heart.  But it can restrain the heartless.”