A "Time Out" From Regulations?

[Andara Bledin]

Article at CNN

So, the current theme from the Republican party is that we need to just do away with regulations that hold businesses accountable to cure the economy.

Obviously, our current administration created all of the regulation that are currently in place and keeping companies from hiring anybody.

At some point, someone has given them the nickname of the GOBP - the Gold Old Boy Party.

^-.-^

[Gravekeeper]

It's almost become surreal. They don't even realise that they're now inside the very echo chamber they created to control the public to begin with. >.>

[HYHYBT]

You cannot with any rationality lump all regulations together, as if all that mattered was how many there are. Some of them are, indeed, useless, contradictory, or unnecessarily burdensome; others (and sometimes even the same ones) serve vital purposes. Some of them that ought to be in place don't yet exist. The way to fix things RIGHT, then, would be to go through and examine them all individually (but including how they relate to each other) and see which do more harm than good and vice versa. But that's too much like work.

[Gravekeeper]

Properly regulated businesses was what saved Canada from going down in flames with the rest of the world the first time around. I imagine declaring happy hour at the money trough in the US would finish the global economy off completely.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Properly regulated businesses was what saved Canada from going down in flames with the rest of the world the first time around. I imagine declaring happy hour at the money trough in the US would finish the global economy off completely.

Just another reason I love my home country so much. Sucks that I have to constantly defend my "socialist state" to ignorant Americans. *sigh*

[bara]

Sadly.. there are many ignorant Americans.

They are often to set on defending thier 'rights' rather than actually exercising said rights. To many of my fellow Americans (though Im not sure where we get off calling ourselves Americans since America is a pretty big place) allow themselves to be blinded by issues that in no way affect the economy, such as gay marriage, to actually pay attention to what does matter. (disclaimer: Gay marriage does matter to the gay community, but it is something that should be a non-issue. I mean to say.. its something that doesnt require debate or thought. Gay people can get married to if they want to and experience the same marital bliss that everyone else does)


Education, business regulation, interest rates, national debt, education, war in Iraq afghanistan, education, health care, education, these are things that our politicians should be dealing with.

[AdminAssistant]

Since our country's name is the United States of America, we have the right to call ourselves Americans. I think there's another thread in here on that. (The oft suggested alternative, USians, just sounds weird.)

bara, those other issues you list are hard. Politicians know they can appeal to the greatest number of the citizenry by hitting emotional buttons (gay marriage, death penalty, What Would Jeebus Do) rather than logical ones.

[Nyoibo]

allow themselves to be blinded by issues that in no way affect the economy, such as gay marriage, to actually pay attention to what does matter.

Actually, I remember reading something recently that legalising it in a state here could potentialy net various industries around $125 million.

[Ginger Tea]

Actually, I remember reading something recently that legalising it in a state here could potentialy net various industries around $125 million.

Well I don't know how much it costs in the UK let alone anywhere else, to register for a marrage, but that alone is just one small expence in the grander scheme of things.
Hell a bridalwear shop could make double the sales per lesbian wedding if both parties decided to wear white.

[mikoyan29]

One of the things that led to the 2008 meltdown was the breakdown of the regulations that were there to prevent that sort of thing in the first place. If the Glass-Steagal regulations were still around, the banks wouldn't have been in the investment business and vice versa. As for the pollution regulations, I'm glad that we don't have cities that are so polluted it is like nighttime. I'm also glad we don't have rivers that are catching on fire and various other things.

The Republicans seem to frame this in terms of certainty when they've done the most to create uncertainty than anything Obama has done. I mean the business folks have to wonder what the next thing to cause the government to blow up will be.

[HYHYBT]

In a sense, for those you've mentioned it's the very effectiveness of certain regulations that gives the illusion they are unnecessary. Many places that used to be obviously polluted in that sort of way have been cleaner for long enough that people have forgotten, or even aren't old enough to remember that it hasn't always been that way. The same with things like the FDA. Congressmen may complain that it costs money, and the public doesn't much like it when all of a particular food vanishes for a couple weeks over possibly being tainted (and that probably could be improved). But isn't it nice that you don't generally have to worry about whether the food you buy is safe, and that it is what it claims to be?