Matt Welch, editor in chief of reason magazine, weighs in on the "scandal" of very well paid government bureaucrats using their computers to look at porn instead of doing their jobs.
He touches on something that doesn't get enough attention, especially from those who seem to think that the recent problems came about because there weren't enough regulations, what he call the two Iron Laws of Regulations:
1. Heavy regulatory schemes inevitably favor, and are favored by, market leaders at the expense of little-guy upstarts who can't afford compliance.
2. Regulators inevitably download porn, either figuratively or literally.
He also addresses the bogus claim* that regulations and regulators were turned off during the Bush administration. Thousands upon thousands of pages were added to the Federal Register and spending on regulation enforcement increased 29% from 2001-2009.
Adding more regulations narrows the playing field and reduces competition. Competition will keep market players more honest than rooms full of government employees raking in six-figure salaries while looking at boobies. The new regulations that will be promulgated will benefit the current big wigs and make it more difficult for small companies and upstarts to challenge them.
But so long as congress gives the impression that it is "doing something" about the problem, and most people don't realize that the something that they're doing is only going to make things less efficient and more expensive and not stop the next recession, it's all good. No?
*In the church of Sean.E.Boy, Veronique de Rugy is a saint.
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