Regulations Are Like Taxes
Although he isn’t speaking solely about our state, Theodore Gatchel’s op-ed, Sunday, presents a worthy reminder that taxation is not the only government burden that must decrease in Rhode Island:
The idea held by many politicians and government bureaucrats that simply passing a new law or issuing a new regulation will solve a problem is a common one. Unfortunately, once a new regulation is turned over to the bureaucrats who administer it, the focus becomes the regulation, not the problem it was created to solve, and common sense goes out the window. The resulting mindset also ensures that most regulations can easily be circumvented.
Whether it’s in housing, healthcare, or business, a heavy regulatory hand creates a minefield — albeit one navigable by those clever enough to game the system (or wealthy enough to pay somebody else for that service). Thus do we see name changes, the shuffling (rather than mandated servicing) of patients, and a class of government officials with lapses in their tax records.
Once, just ONCE can you provide some data or something to support your claims?
What proof do you have that RI is heavy-handed?
Any?
And I mean real, honest-to-goodness data. With numbers. And trends. And, you know, data.
Maybe you’ve got a point. Maybe you haven’t. No one will ever know unless you provide some sort of evidence to support what you say.
As it is, it’s just a lot of hot air.
Alas, working full time prevents my embarking on a thorough study of the effects of regulation in Rhode Island, although I’d certainly be interested in doing so were somebody able to finance it. In the meantime, I’m limited to the aggregated sense from years of observing how things are just harder in RI. Here’s one example of the ways in which regulations governing the process of becoming a plumber decreases the supply of same. This pops up again and again, whether it’s in the cost of being a doctor in the state or of being an employer.