Too many regs

tyler — Having more government in our lives, is this really good?

There are those who want the hand of mother government in everything. Somehow afraid that if mother is not looking out for your every move, somehow you will get a bad deal.

But, this new research from George Mason University says what many have said all along. American business must comply with a lot of rules. Too many.

There are more than 165,000 pages of federal regulations, almost 20,000 of which were added in the past four years. One of the chief rationales for many regulations is safety, and, as Congress expands regulators' mandates, regulators concentrate on writing highly detailed and specific rules to cover perceived gaps in the law.

For the sake of protecting the health and safety of workers and consumers, the federal government accepts the significant drag regulatory compliance puts on the U.S. economy and the burden it places on all businesses, but especially small ones.

Psychology, economics, and organizational science, however, suggest that too many regulations-particularly highly detailed regulations-may make society less, rather than more, safe.

In "Regulatory Overload: A Behavioral Analysis of Regulatory Compliance," occupational psychologists and economists look at the behavioral effects of regulatory overload on businesses. They find that too many, and too detailed, regulations can reduce compliance, discourage innovation, and fuel uncertainty, ultimately making Americans less safe.

This is hard, cruel wold. Risk is part of it.

Now, it can't be gunfight at the O.K. Corral either.

But, the nanny state we've put ourselves in has done nothing but slow this country down.

That's my point of view, whats yours?

You can email me at pov@ketknbc.com [2].