THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

REGULATION | 2007-08-14

You seemed to enjoy my lawyer qoutes, and they had a PURPOSE. I want you to REALIZE just how dumb professionals ARE,once they have their credentials to keep from being judged on making sense.

I helped make a lot of laws, rules and regulations. In one case, we were discussing some adjustment of labor law for the Reagan program -- I was still on Capitol Hill then. They were quoting Administration policy, which said, "Regulations should be limited to the number one has the resources and power to keep track of and enforce."

To me, this was like saying, "You have the freedom to do anything that does not injure others." Like so much Wisdom, it sounds profound but is actually meaningless. Every tyranny in history said the same thing: if you dispute Communism, you are hurting others, if you discourage people in the True Faith, said the Inqusition and the Puritans, you are sending people to Hell.

No one EVER said you should have regulations you can't enforce. But in early 1981 this was Ultimate Wisdom from the New Administratin, Holy Writ, so only one persn sitting there would do anything but ooh ad ahh over its profundity.

My comment was, "You say that 'Regulations should be limited to the number one has the resources and power to keep track of and enforce.' May I pont out that God Almighty is STILL trying to enforce TEN?"

COMMENTS (2)

#1 Dave | 2007-08-14 11:49

The most effective attack on regulation I ever ran across was recounted by Albert Speer in explaining how he went about expanding German war production in the face of relentless Allied bombing.

He redefined the meaning of the word "transaction" from its financial meaning to a social meaning: "Any thing two or more humans must meet or communicate with each other to resolve".

He then ordered senior management to count the "transactions" involved in the production chains and organizational structures they oversaw. He then ordered them to reduce the "transactions" in their operations by 50% within a period of three weeks, putting on a specially missioned audit team to measure compliance.

This forced his senior management to get rid of the bullshit. After satisfying compliance, Speer ordered further reductions in "transactions" forcing ever-greater efficiency in achieving results.

It is well known with enduring amazement Germany's ability to maintain output in the face of such heavy damage to its infrastructure during the latter phase of WWII. Albert's Speer's management genius played a major part.

Of course, for reasons of political correctness, Albert Speer is never taught in business schools. But in learning of Albert Speer's methods, I came to realize that there isn't a politician in existence who has the slightness clue as to how to actually reduce regulation, yet with the right method, it can be done in a heartbeat.

It's like what BW says, "There are times when the adults must take over" and the very notion of accountable government is that elected representatives must control public money, how much is spent and what it is spent for. Yet without control of "transactions" in the Albert Speer sense, this cannot be accomplished.

Instead our government relies on mandated financial and performance audits, forever measuring what is irrelevant and supporting yet another industry (e.g. the audit industry) with pork of no social value. Regularly state legislatures and Congress are informed of gigantic unauthorized expenditures, and regularly state legislatures and Congress levy no sanctions whatsoever for the violation of contracts the very essence of which constitutes their power as elected officials.

When anybody says America is a "democracy" I know they are clueless as to what they are talking about. To be a democracy elected officials must have effective control over public expenditure. Nowhere does this exist in America.

#2 Alan B. | 2007-08-19 16:05

Government thrives on power, regulation provides government the means to force business to bid for their approval and the citizen pays tribute to the government for permission to conduct affairs. To eliminate regulation the government would be required to give up power, this will never happen until things become totally out of control. The economic survial of the white race may be the first war fought against our enemies, followed by our racial survival. It is our money that keeps the PC academics afloat and it is our money that supports the non white government dependants, why do we continue to buy the rope that our enemies wish to hang us with.