Re: How do you feel about the Tea Party movement?
Someone mentioned somewhere about how companies from France are coming to the US, since regulation is too strict in France. I didn't give it much thought, until a couple days later. When a government regulates it's companies too much, they go overseas, foreign labor and such. Something smells fishy with apologizing for this. Before I go any further, I certainly agree that too much regulation is bad. I've been hesitant to start a new business due to EPA requirements.
But here is what smells fishy. If regulation is enacted to protect the common citizen from abuse by a corporation, how is it moral for that corporation to go overseas and take advantage of other people without such protection? When we have minimum wages, as a simplistic example, it is to ensure people aren't paid a pittance while the big fish at the top of the corporate food chain rake in all the profit. So to increase revenue, these companies go overseas and hire people for far less than minimum wage, which only takes the injustice somewhere else.
The businesses in the US are currently very under-regulated. I see abuse nonstop everywhere I look, and watch in frustration as select few people grow wealthy from the combined overdraft fees of millions of Americans. Or E. Coli outbreaks that kill people, yet the FDA is unable to shut down the food plants. Or unregulated offshore drilling.
Perhaps those oil companies will do business in Mexico instead of the US if we regulate them too much. But what the hell does that solve? We would still have unsafe oil rigs in the Gulf! It's like telling your child they aren't allowed to do cocaine when they live under your roof, so they move out and do cocaine elsewhere. The problem isn't that regulation would drive corporations overseas, the problem is that corporations want maximum profit, even if it means at the expense of the American people.
Perhaps some politicians have already thought of this and penalize such behavior in some manner. I'm not sure how it could be done without damaging the economy here in the US. But then, think of it like this. If the economy is weaker in the US as a result of regulation, yet also results in a more equal distribution of wealth, it could very well be a positive net sum to the vast majority of Americans. The rich would no longer be as rich, perhaps the middle class would come back, and we would no longer have the toxic injustices that we see everyday. In all honesty, this still seems to be a poor trade-off. But we should remain focused on the true root of the problem, rather than treating merely the symptoms. Under-regulation allows injustices to be done on a massive scale.
By the way, I licensed my business a couple months ago.
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