Posted on 08/09/2013 4:06:21 PM PDT by Kaslin
Some rules are needed to keep order in a society, promote fair dealing, safety, etc. But, regulation isn't free. The cost of compliance is added to everything that is grown, mined, manufactured, processed, sold, and consumed. Cost of regulatory compliance is a real cost of operation for businesses that effects market competitiveness of goods and services and thus can stifle job creation as well as salaries and wages.
Taxation is tangible. State, local, and federal tax obligations are paid directly. They show up on a P & L in a line item, or at the bottom of a receipt at a checkout counter. Taxes are visible and easily quantifiable.
But, the cost of regulation is stealth. Seldom does anyone calculate, itemize, post and publish the actual cost of the myriad of rules that control our lives and everything we produce and consume. The cost is just embedded in the price. Whether it’s a box of corn flakes, the energy to heat and cool our home, or a new car, the consumer has almost no ability to know how much of the price they are charged is due to compliance with rules along the way imposed and policed by government to produce the end product for the consumer.
Just as the cost of taxes ultimately gets passed on the consumer, so too does the cost of regulation – except the cost of regulation vastly exceeds the total revenue paid in corporate taxes in America. Additionally, the Obama Administration has been promulgating regulation at unprecedented levels.
CEI, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, is one of a growing group of organizations that monitors and quantifies the 80,000 or so pages of federal regulations in America. Annually, CEI published an update called Ten Thousand Commandments. They also provide current updates throughout the year. Following are the bullet points for the August 5 weekly report, the full text of which can be found here.
-Last week, 82 new final regulations were published in the Federal Register. There were 80 new final rules the previous week.
-That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every two hours and three minutes — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
-All in all, 2,160 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year.
-If this keeps up, the total tally for 2013 will be 3,684 new final rules.
-Last week, 1,707 new pages were added to the 2013 Federal Register, for a total of 47,077 pages.
-At its current pace, the 2013 Federal Register will run 78,989 pages, which would be good for fourth all time. The current record is 81,405 pages, set in 2010.
-Rules are called “economically significant” if they have costs of $100 million or more in a given year. No such rules were published last week, for a total of 17 so far in 2013.
-The total estimated compliance costs of this year’s economically significant regulations ranges from $5.78 billion to $10.39 billion.
-So far, 149 final rules that meet the broader definition of “significant” have been published in 2013.
Oh, regulation is tangible, all right. Any businessman can estimate how much it costs. It only seems intangible because the MSM doesn’t report estimates of it.
A big shame of our government, aside from its size, it its inefficiency. The bigger it gets, the more waste it causes. Regulation, unpassed or administered by any elected persons, is a very significant part of this.
From a farmer who has just repurposed his land because of government regulations:
At 70, Bessemer said he would rather throw in the towel than continue.
“We don’t want to quit, we were forced out of the business. We can’t spend enough money to comply,” he said. “We’ve been farming for 117 years. I’m the third generation and we’re being put out of business by the government. We can’t comply with all of the safety laws. We haven’t poisoned anybody with an ear of corn for 117 years and we’ve shipped it all over,” he said.
“I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard what are you going to do?” Bessemer said.
Regulation creates bureaucracy.
“It’s about jobs”
Because of the EPA I’m no longer self-employed.
Sometimes we forget that large / global corporate are quite comfortable working with big government to use regulations to suppress competition from start ups and small business.
it’s only stealth to journo-libtards and liberal politicrats.
it’s always pointed out by real-world people engaging in business, and the journo-libtards and lib politicrats just laugh and say we’re making it up, it won’t be that bad, etc etc.
Service sector jobs are generally less affected by the stiff regulatory environment than industry and manufacturing.
My clients are doing a refi on a million dollar ranch on the river. They are borrowing $300,000 against it for a ranch across the street. They have about $30,000 per month in income, 1099 income, they are self employed with 800+ credit scores and the bank wants a guarantee from them or someone that the 3 decade old oil and gas lease payment of $10,000 per month will continue!!!
They cannot provide that other than a contract, so they have refused to give them the 15 year note and have re-quoted them for a 30 year at 4.75%, because that is what they have determined they can afford.
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