Do you recall my several calls for regulatory reform as a means of giving businesses a hand and promoting job creation? It’s been a repeated theme around here. According to Kiplinger regulatory reform is coming but it won’t be the kind that encourages businesses to expand and create jobs, more the other way around:
The Obama administration is cranking out a slew of regulations affecting businesses. Political appointees are in control at most Cabinet departments and regulatory agencies, and they’re having an influence. Congress is also getting into the act, albeit more slowly. Most of the changes will boost labor protections against workplace hazards, discrimination, unfair pay policies and in other personnel disputes. For employers, it means more costs and red tape as they’re forced to show they’re in compliance.
“It’s hard to believe that a widget maker will have any time to make widgets in this hyper-enforcement environment,†says Rae T. Vann, general counsel at the Equal Employment Advisory Council, an employer group.
Hat tip: TaxingTennessee via Glenn Reynolds.
That isn’t entirely unexpected. Even with the enormous amount of spending the federal government has been doing over the last several months there are still budget constraints and when you’ve got budget constraints the means of promoting your political agenda that’s still opened to you is regulatory change. I recall any number of predictions along these lines before the election.
However, I doubt that it portends well for a speedy economic recovery. I realize that you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs but there’s such a thing as killing the goose that laid the golden eggs, to pile platitude on platitude.
Eggzactly.
As someone who does regulatory compliance in his day-to-day work, the fear that “For employers, it means more costs and red tape as they’re forced to show they’re in compliance.” is over blown. I have more red tape dealing with the companies’ internal processes and procedures than I do in actual compliance work.
Dave, you’re self-employed and I know you have been for awhile, so you might not be aware of how hidebound, bureaucratic, and red-taped filled most American businesses are. And let me tell you, it ain’t because of government. It’s usually set up as a consequence of the management fad of the week, and sticks around out of inertia. When people in politics tell me how much more efficient business is than government, I always laugh, because that’s not necessarily the case.
A true analysis of regulatory reform would be: “Does this particular regulation create more costs in the compliance than its benefits warrant? Will this regulation prevent the harm stated?” etc….
I don’t disagree with that formulation. And I’m well aware of how poorly many businesses are run. I see it in my clients and their clients and customers.
However, that regulation isn’t the only problem doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem. I’m self-employed for a reason. I’m making more money than I did when I had a company, an office, and employees. One of the reasons was that I was spending an increasing amount of time and money filling out forms and paying taxes.
That I don’t doubt. That stuff keeps piling on every day–especially because of immigration issues. I love how fond conservatives are trying to crack down on employers to make sure they don’t hire illegal immigrants, because the paperwork that results for ID verification, etc. is an absolute nightmare.
Given the recent employer-friendly/employee-unfriendly trend in Supreme Court rulings, and given the huge resource differential between individuals and the companies that employ them (in general), don’t individuals deserve more protections from abuses? There are other ways of encouraging growth within this country than by neglecting employee protections or even removing them, as had been the policy for the previous administration.