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The only real regulation reform is deregulation

By Darren Nelson - posted Friday, 8 June 2018


To make benefits and costs comparable over time requires discounting at some rate. The need for discounting reflects the general preference for the present over the future ie time opportunity cost.

Risk refers to a quantity susceptible of measurement, and not a true uncertainty that cannot be quantified. In [the latter] case [one] must rely on judgment to anticipate what may occur.

Chapter 8 entitled "Repeal existing regulations before adopting new ones", for example, respectively quotes Herbert Spencer and draws upon John Densonin the following way:

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From the Statute of Merton [of 1236] to the end of 1872, there had been passed 18,110 public Acts; of which an estimated [4/5s] had been wholly or partially repealed [mainly 1846 to 1872 ].

Some inspiring repeal episodes in US history include: President Thomas Jefferson at the start of the 1800s re some tax, tariff and other laws; President Andrew Jackson in the early 1800s re central banking; President Martin van Buren in the mid 1800s re financial laws; President Andrew Johnson in the mid-to-late 1800s re Southern military occupation and reconstruction; and President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s re central banking and antitrust.

Two quotes (the former from Frédéric Bastiat) from Chapter 9 entitled "Enforcing property rights can be superior to regulation", for example, state:

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make [common] laws in the first place.

Along with crime, tort and contract, property is the oldest area of common law, particularly that of real or land property. Common law was historically [and very surprisingly to many nowadays] NOT government legislation or regulation driven law.

Chapter 10 entitled "Hands off the Internet (the digital economy abhors regulation)", for example, quotes Peter Klein as follows:

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The Internet is a case in point that Liberty is the mother of innovation. It is only thanks to market participants that the Internet became something other than a typical government program, characterized by inefficiency, over-capitalization, and irrelevance. [Ongoing] government involvement accounts for the Internet's continuing problems and political favoritism.

In conclusion to this article, and from the Conclusion chapter of Ten Principles, Llewellyn Rockwell reminds:

Ultimately you must frame your arguments in terms of what is good for the State. And the reality is that Liberty is not usually good for the State. The State is open to persuasion, to be sure, but it usually acts out of fear, not friendship. If the bureaucrats and politicians fear backlash, they will not increase taxes or regulations. If they sense a high enough degree of public outrage, they will even repeal controls and programs [ie deregulate].

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This article was first published on Town Hall.



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About the Author

Darren Brady Nelson is an Austrian School economist, conservative-libertarian and Christian who lives in Brisbane Queensland but is originally from Milwaukee Wisconsin.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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