Iād say the answer to āhow did we get from vehicle safety to national debtā is āthrough the cudgel of overgeneralization that is typically swung by people who think the democratically defined rule of law is somehow equivalent to oppression.ā Anything that forces me to live by a law I donāt like, you see, is a āgameā or a āfraudā ā whether thatās the āgameā of setting and using a consistent accounting calendar that, gawd forbid, doesnāt align to January and so āconfuses meā enough (aka: gives me enough excuse) to juuuust squeeze in a conspiracy theory regarding one of the most painfully, over-data-shared agencies of the federal government, or itās the āfraudā of regulations which have cut per-capita vehicle deaths by 80% since the creation of the associated regulatory agency (the NHTSA, created by a law signed 10 months after the publishing of the book).
See, hereās the really dumb thing about āregulation increases revenue:ā and to whom, exactly, do you think that money goes? Can anyone point to a government official that is paid by commission? Anyone that gets a percent cut of revenue, so theyāre upselling your traffic ticket - āwould you like deferred adjudication with that? Thanks for your order!ā to bump up revenue?
Salaries are not tied to revenue in government ā which is unsurprising, because the government is basically the largest nonprofit corporation in the country. Out of every penny of revenue added, exactly 0% of that direct funding goes to somebodyās dividend, or a percent increase in salaries or benefits. It goes back into the company ā which is in the business, in this case, of providing us public services. Every penny of that ārevenue machineā of regulation? WE GET IT ALL BACK.
Well, I guess you could say if you violate the regulation, you donāt directly get it all back ā public services paid by revenue are something you get, but so does the guy beside you and the guy beside him. Fair enough. But you know what? You should be paying for that. I should be getting a cut of the revenue you just āgeneratedā for the government. Because, and this is the nifty thing about regulation: when you violate them, typically you are costing me money. Those regulations ensure even baseline playing fields across particular industries, and if you comply with them, guess what, gubāmint doesnāt āgenerate any incomeā ā you just comply with the same requirements as everyone else in your industry, and nobody suffers competitive disadvantage. But try to game the system, sneak a little something by to water down or cut a corner on that requirement ā all of the sudden, Iām getting an inferior product and you, due to the illicit competitive advantage you gained, retain your price due to the rest market being bound to it and pocket the profits.
Regulations only āgenerate revenueā to any significant degree if you violate them. There is value to ensuring that there is a baseline of requirement for product safety, in evening the playing field by making sure one canāt ācompeteā on how many kids choke on your product or houses are set on fire by your productās flammability. Violate those baselines, and damn right, you should be āgenerating revenueā for the nonprofit that I own, along with a third of a billion other citizens of my country. Youāre breaking our rules. Breaking our rules means we have to pay the socioeconomic costs of your laziness and greed ā every family that loses their house, every person overcrowding an ER that canāt actually cover their way but isnāt thinking about that when theyāre entering the ER because theyāre busy dying from asbestos/heavy metal/take your pick poisoning, every regulatory decision you decide youāre too much of a Special Flowerā¢ for costs me and my country money. Donāt complain when we send you the bill.