One doesn’t have to read much to encounter the quite common notion among intelligent persons that “we” need to get control of the “regulators” created by Congress in order to make things better. Example: “…it’s high time we take a good look at regulators and not just regulations to see where the cracks are in the prudential governance of markets, financial institutions, and most importantly, individuals who are responsible for decisions that break the law or grossly impact markets and our economy.”

This notion doesn’t fit the facts of past regulatory agencies and it doesn’t fit the incentives built into the many regulatory apparati of government. As a rule, the regulatory agencies all produce abominable regulations, and it doesn’t matter who is heading them. They are all bureaucratic. They all create an impossible administrative law apparatus that lacks justice. They all are out of control of their creators, the Congress. There is no such thing as a beneficial regulatory agency. They are a fourth branch of government that combines legislative, executive, and judicial functions, and that’s worse than even the ordinary government, if such a thing is possible.

There is no one to “take a good look” at regulators and their regulations on an ongoing basis. Congressmen certainly can’t do it, and don’t do it unless there is such a big squawk that they have to.

It’s a near certainty that a close look at any agency will uncover all sorts of cozy and corrupt relations with those whom they regulate. It will uncover cushy and protected jobs. There is probably a library of books written by ex-bureaucrats that provide gory details of the agency blunders and poor organizations.

It is pointless to “look into” these bureaucracies. They need to be completely eliminated, but if that is too radical, then I always have the other radical suggestion, which is that all those Americans who want to be regulated by these agencies volunteer to be so controlled; and those of us who do not want to be run by these agencies gain our freedom to live our lives free from their regulations. Given this choice, I think that within a very short period of time, those who opted to be regulated would see that it is holding them back and they too would opt out. The regulatory agencies would disappear from the face of the earth.

The Best of Michael S. Rozeff