Government Red Tape
Whether it’s layers of licensing requirements or endless red tape, government rules and regulations can stifle business. Learn how we can free up entrepreneurs.
The Arizona House Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee is considering an amendment to Senate Bill 1224 that would transfer the Arizona Office of Pest Management to the state Department of Agriculture. The amendment is based on a recommendation that came from the state Auditor General after that office was asked whether or not the Office of Pest Management should be moved. But, the Auditor General wasn’t asked the right question; the question really is: should the pest management office continue to exist?
By Ralph Benko
Welcome to the Wild West, 2012 style. The Feds to Tombstone: “If you want to fix your water line, better lawyer up and talk to President Obama.”
As Ronald Reagan famously noted, Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States. Why is it, then, that every year we see more proposed government regulations that make it harder for small businesses to open and operate?
The local Super Bowl Host Committee shoveled out about $17 million for the weeklong Super Bowl party in Phoenix and Glendale. The private sector, including the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and the Thunderbirds charity funded over 80 percent of these Super expenses.
I don’t know what tiny Garra Rufa fish eat in their native Asian habitats; but when they see a skin callus, they go crazy. I guess there’s no accounting for taste in the fish world. Just as there’s no accounting for reason in the world of government bureaucrats.
Weirdness seems to be taking over the minds of normally sane people when candidates including Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney claim to believe that agricultural subsidies are necessary for food security. Are markets so wildly inefficient that unless government pays the farmers, they will quit producing food and well all go hungry?
Most economists are content to remain in the ivory tower and most politicians are content to let public opinion lead. Vaclav Klaus, a Ph.D. economist and President of the Czech Republic, has led public opinion and acted on his convictions. Today, the Czech Republic is one of the freest and fastest growing countries in Europe.
A recent editorial in the Arizona Daily Star takes the view that payday loans should be outlawed in Arizona, as scheduled, in 2010. Payday loans are very small loans that accept future paychecks as collateral and charge high fees and rates of interest. .
There is belt-tightening across the nation. Sales at retail stores dropped in November, and sellers are bracing themselves for a paltry Christmas season. The reasons are obvious. The unprecedented decline in stock market and home values has eaten away at families' savings. Companies are laying off workers and cutting back their hours. People are rationally responding by cutting back to preserve what they have.
It all started with the rescue of Bear Stearns. The government's reckoning that the foundational principles of our economic system could be ignored, just this once, was a colossal blunder. Now we have full-blown bailout mania.