Sylvia Bokor 2008-11-27
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"Government," Mr. Howard writes, "accomplishes virtually nothing of what it sets out to do. It can barely fire an employee. . ."
Mr. Howard's book focuses primarily on the irrational rules of government agencies---for example, OSHA, EPA, USDA, DEA and so forth---which are awash in thousands of rules that hamper and destroy businesses. OSHA alone has 10,000 pages of regulation. Other agencies have more.
An instance of the irrationality of these agencies is exemplified by the case of a small businessman, a cheese maker, whose product was so good it was in demand by the finest restaurants in the nation. He had four employees. OSHA posted 2 permanent inspectors in his business "to evaluate that the cheese was properly made."
The inspectors were bureaucrats who knew nothing about cheese-making but were employed to force businessmen to follow rules that were written by other bureaucrats who know nothing about cheese-making, on the bizarre notion that everyone must follow the same rules and the rules must be uniform.
The value of Mr. Howard's book is the many case studies he relates. He also shows that the thousands of rules of government agencies do not take into consideration the important matters of context and varying circumstance that is characteristic of any business enterprise. He concludes that to force businesses to follow uniform laws is not good law and that their proliferation is destructive. All very true.
Unfortunately, Mr. Howard falls short of the mark. He does not advocate the one solution that would completely end irrational laws. He does not appear to recognize the horrendous violations of individual rights these agencies are guilty of. He does not call for a return to limited government and a complete repeal of all government agencies, which is the only long-lasting solution to government's ever-growing invasion of our lives.
