U. S. Regulatory Policy

Looney Tunes

I do not quote “Forbes” very often. But, here goes nothing (Jun 21, 2021):

The European Commission’s recent communication, Better Regulation: Taking Stock and Sustaining Our Commitment similarly highlights an “ambitious agenda,” and acknowledges “the unprecedented challenges we are facing,” but concludes that “the need for strong analysis and reliable evidence is greater than ever.” It focuses on streamlining regulation and “avoiding burdens that are not strictly necessary for the achievement of policy objectives.” For example, it states that “a cornerstone of [the EU’s] better regulation approach is to learn from the past by evaluating existing legislation.” It views regulation as a “policy cycle” that “requires systematic collection of data” and evaluation of actual outcomes to ensure regulation effectively achieves goals.

Europeans are much better at regulating than we US/Americans are. Americans have this propaganda of “never regulate,” and '“the economic system works all by itself.” Even if we have recently stopped believing that, for a long time we did and so it is an ingrained part of us. This is the US/American heritage — in so far as we have one of those. Europeans are not scared of it. They do not hesitate to regulate, if there is a need; but, according to Forbes they also back off when necessary.

So. It goes both ways. If you believe in the free market propaganda that says “don’t regulate,” ever, then it is both difficult to regulate and difficult not to do too much, when you finally change. If you admit to the necessity, then over time you learn both when to do it — and when not. Is that better? Maybe it is, you have both activities under your purview now.

There is this great danger: in the USA we have a “heritage” of bad economic thinking alongside the world’s most robust capitalist economy. That could be toxic. Every day now, we see the evidence of how it has grown out of control. From school shootings to a nation hooked on for-profit, legal drugs it is all the outcome of this wish to “never regulate.”

But Europeans never though in any case that one should simply never regulate. Such a wacky idea did not occur to them.

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Then again — the U. S. IS no. 1 in cartoons!!!!#