There are rules that each of us must follow. Some come from our town, our state, or our country. Are these regulations truly necessary?
It is easy to dislike regulations. They often prevent us for doing things we want to do. Or they cost time and money in working around them. They can be poorly worded, ineffective, or overly complicated.
And yet, we count on regulations to protect us. In theory, they keep our food safe to eat, our drinking water pure, and our air free of pollutants. They keep marginalized groups safe, and safeguard animals on the verge of extinction.
Or at least, that was the original intention. While individuals and neighbors might look out for one another, companies and corporations surely won’t. They need to be told specifically and exactly what they can and cannot do, in their quest to turn a profit. Those rules are the origin of regulations.
Protection and safety sound good. But too much red tape can strangle a small — or even a large — business. Is it possible to ease the regulatory burden on companies and individuals?
One extreme is to have no restrictions on what companies are allowed to do. The other is to require every decision, no matter how small, to be controlled to make sure they are in the best interest of the masses. Is there some middle ground allowing businesses to flourish while also keeping the community safe? Where are we currently on this spectrum?
Related questions: If you were to create a small business, what would it do? What role does community play in your life? What makes a community? Unrestrained capitalism or social democracy?
Overall, I believe regulations are beneficial. For example, we rely on them to ensure our food is safe when shipped from farms to grocery stores or restaurants, and that those places are clean and sanitary. In another area, renters must depend on city inspectors to enforce rules that keep their homes safe and healthy, such as being free from mold, pests, and poor living conditions. Regulations are essential to prevent companies from polluting the environments where we live and play. There are many other ways that good regulations help keep us safe and healthy, especially when we wouldn’t be able to do so as individuals. That is what is key about many regulations: as individuals, there’s almost no way to make sure the places we live and visit are safe and healthy. We need the government’s executive functions to make our laws work in practice for society as a whole.
That said, are all regulations necessary? Of course not. In my line of work, some communities use regulations to prevent the development of new housing, so lower-income households will never live there. Is it okay for regulations to require that all homes in a community have two-car garages and be built on large lots? I don’t think so. And yet many wealthier communities use regulations like these to keep “those people” out.
We need effective and fair methods for regularly reviewing or challenging regulations. However, these methods must prevent those with influence (e.g., large corporations, exclusive groups) from dominating the regulatory review process just because they understand how to manipulate the system better than those without resources or power.
You know the old saying: Every regulation was written in somebody’s blood. This is true for safety, building, environmental and the like. The only regulations that should be across-the-board removed are the ones that, basically, were NOT written in blood: the ones that are only there to protect a privilege (such as NIMBY protections).
Town zoning regulations are a bit different, but are good except when they’re just red-lining the populace.
Making regulations difficult to understand, to adhere to, to document is the biggest complaint of small businesses, I gather. It’s a time-suck. But this is a procedural problem, not a conceptual problem. In my opinion, we need consumer protections now more than ever. Capitalism doesn’t care about people; only money.
Regulations are necessary for life as I desire to exist including medical, drugs, environmental, transportation, food at all stages, occupational, education, and our relationships with each other.