America is now run by dead people—by political leaders from the past who enacted mandatory programs that churn ahead regardless of waste, irrelevance, or new priorities.
Rules have replaced leadership in America. ... Nobody asks, “What’s the right thing to do here?” Instead, they wonder, “What does the rule book say?”
Public paralysis is the inevitable result of the steady accretion of detailed rules.
From the forward to The Rule Of Nobody.
Related:
Clear law is the ruin of a nation.
Obsession with writing excessively detailed laws had made it impossible for real people to get anything done".
Give us rule of law but with renewal, not accretion.
Apparently an ebola treatment has been hung up at the FDA for a couple of years now. Of course, it has been expedited in light of the new emergency.
ReplyDeleteBut another aspect of the problem is that the 'regulators' seem to inevitably become part of a corporate culture that may regulate the industry, but also comes increasingly to protect it. Think of cable TV, and cell phones in Canada, and the complex relations between Rogers, Bell, Telus, et al with the CRTC.
Their regulations prevent new competitors entering the field, often, by making it too expensive. It just generally slows down economic activity, even when its efficient.