Is Government Overregulation Strangling Small Business?
Overregulation is destroying "Small Business," true statement or, as with Chicken Little, "The sky is falling" panic? Let's assume for a moment the statement is valid, who, why and what is responsible? Ironically, the predecessors of the modern day business person who are screaming foul about overregulation, are the people who forced the origination of regulatory rules by government.
For instance, the regulation of Child Labor rules were enacted to stop businesses from working 8 and 10 year old boys 12 hours a day in factories and mines for mere pittance of a wage.
It is said "Those who don't learn from their history, are doomed to repeat it," or something similar.
In an attempt, right or wrong, to begin to dismantle government regulations of the country's financial industry, the Bush administration negated nearly all regulation, or facilitated the removal of the teeth to enforce regulation.
There is such an elaborate maze of financial deception in place it's nearly impossible to pin point the exact time the financial world began the corruption, but it appears they initially began implementing dishonest practices as soon as the ink dried on the proclamation.
The Country is now still teetering on the edge of recession and a full blown depression because of the financial collapse of America's economy perpetrated by the dishonest, some say criminal, behavior of the people responsible for the operating in an honest and ethical manner without oversight.
Was there too much regulation of the financial industry? In my humble opinion, yes.
Federal agencies seem to become amoebas, dividing and replicating itself which creates massive amounts of repetitive paperwork so each agency can justify their existence.
However, you don't, or at least shouldn't, pull every tooth in your mouth out because you have a cavity in one.
Should there have been elimination of redundancy, of course, but not to the extend of complete removal of the agency's enforcement of it's primary goal.
We've unfortunately established that in many cases government regulation is required in order to protect the general public from unscrupulous business practices.
The talk and media attention concentrates on the Federal Government's overregulation as the culprit in squashing small business, but is that accurate? Certainly there are federal regulations which could be reviewed in which to help small business, but the fact is State and Local governments' regulations are the Real Source of strangulation of the small business owner.
I had a friend who purchased a small restaurant and bar which had failed and through the hard work, only ownership creates, turned it into a thriving business.
The restaurant building itself, which was part of a strip mall complex, was built with inadequate restrooms facilities.
When the owner inquired about expanding his thriving business he was informed he was currently Grandfathered in, but he'd have to update his restroom facilities to Handicap accessible, a Federal regulation if we wanted to remodel.
The owner had no issue with that, as he wasn't pleased with the inadequate size of the facilities anyway, but in order to comply he would need to expand his restaurants' square footage, which was the original purpose anyway.
Contacting the municipalities' water and sewer department he was informed, should he expand into the vacant floor space adjacent to the restaurant he could not combine the two systems, although the system was oversized and complied with all National Plumbing Codes, but rather had to install a new system at the cost of $80,000.
(State Regulation ) While contemplating if a $80,000 capital expenditure for sewers was feasible, he was informed there was a City Ordinance restricting the size of strip mall eating facilities so should he expend into the next area he'd have to sacrifice 1000 square feet of eating area to decoration, such as a huge fish tank.
The moral of the story is, instead of expanding his small business, which would have created 8 new jobs, 2 cooks, 1 bartender and 5 waitresses, he canceled the entire project, all due to Federal, State and City regulations.
Ironically, the Federal Regulation would have been the easiest and most logical regulation to comply with.
For instance, the regulation of Child Labor rules were enacted to stop businesses from working 8 and 10 year old boys 12 hours a day in factories and mines for mere pittance of a wage.
It is said "Those who don't learn from their history, are doomed to repeat it," or something similar.
In an attempt, right or wrong, to begin to dismantle government regulations of the country's financial industry, the Bush administration negated nearly all regulation, or facilitated the removal of the teeth to enforce regulation.
There is such an elaborate maze of financial deception in place it's nearly impossible to pin point the exact time the financial world began the corruption, but it appears they initially began implementing dishonest practices as soon as the ink dried on the proclamation.
The Country is now still teetering on the edge of recession and a full blown depression because of the financial collapse of America's economy perpetrated by the dishonest, some say criminal, behavior of the people responsible for the operating in an honest and ethical manner without oversight.
Was there too much regulation of the financial industry? In my humble opinion, yes.
Federal agencies seem to become amoebas, dividing and replicating itself which creates massive amounts of repetitive paperwork so each agency can justify their existence.
However, you don't, or at least shouldn't, pull every tooth in your mouth out because you have a cavity in one.
Should there have been elimination of redundancy, of course, but not to the extend of complete removal of the agency's enforcement of it's primary goal.
We've unfortunately established that in many cases government regulation is required in order to protect the general public from unscrupulous business practices.
The talk and media attention concentrates on the Federal Government's overregulation as the culprit in squashing small business, but is that accurate? Certainly there are federal regulations which could be reviewed in which to help small business, but the fact is State and Local governments' regulations are the Real Source of strangulation of the small business owner.
I had a friend who purchased a small restaurant and bar which had failed and through the hard work, only ownership creates, turned it into a thriving business.
The restaurant building itself, which was part of a strip mall complex, was built with inadequate restrooms facilities.
When the owner inquired about expanding his thriving business he was informed he was currently Grandfathered in, but he'd have to update his restroom facilities to Handicap accessible, a Federal regulation if we wanted to remodel.
The owner had no issue with that, as he wasn't pleased with the inadequate size of the facilities anyway, but in order to comply he would need to expand his restaurants' square footage, which was the original purpose anyway.
Contacting the municipalities' water and sewer department he was informed, should he expand into the vacant floor space adjacent to the restaurant he could not combine the two systems, although the system was oversized and complied with all National Plumbing Codes, but rather had to install a new system at the cost of $80,000.
(State Regulation ) While contemplating if a $80,000 capital expenditure for sewers was feasible, he was informed there was a City Ordinance restricting the size of strip mall eating facilities so should he expend into the next area he'd have to sacrifice 1000 square feet of eating area to decoration, such as a huge fish tank.
The moral of the story is, instead of expanding his small business, which would have created 8 new jobs, 2 cooks, 1 bartender and 5 waitresses, he canceled the entire project, all due to Federal, State and City regulations.
Ironically, the Federal Regulation would have been the easiest and most logical regulation to comply with.
Source...