patrick.net

Those permits should not exist. They are a conspiracy to restrain free trade to protect the profits of other merchants at public expense.

So what’s the difference between areas reverting to the Stone Age at warp speed, and areas where obvious progress is occurring? Two words explain it all: government regulation.

The industries making any progress are the least regulated industries. It’s that simple.

Transportation, which includes airlines, is one of the most heavily-regulated industries in the country. It’s impossible to build better supersonic jets because it’s impossible to for them to comply with the thousands and thousands of government requirements. You can point to regressive social ‘developments’, too, thanks to socially-directed regulations like Title VII and Title IX.

DEI is a manifestation of EEOC regulations and related ways the federal government is using regulatory pressure to achieve social goals.

The appliance industry is so regulated we need a new word, a word like micromanagement. Appliances have become micro-regulated and now they don’t work.

Government regulation also ossifies big corporations into de-facto fascism. Big corporations adjust to swelling regulation and evolve to earn a profit anyway. The regulations keep out competitors, to survive, big corporations capture the regulatory agencies that are supposed to supervise them.

It’s a parasymbiotic relationship, as evidenced by the well-documented turnstile of FDA officials and board members between big pharma and the regulatory health agencies.

You might think the situation is beyond redemption, but it’s not. Not at all. We have an effective example of how easily it could be fixed. That example manifest when President Trump required every agency to remove two regulations for every new regulation imposed. The rule was simple, elegant, and brilliant. It was self-enforcing. And it worked. During Trump’s term in office, the agencies removed more than two regulations for each new one they passed.

On his first day in office, Joe Biden revoked President Trump’s regulation-pruning order.

So the regulatory problem, which is under attack in many ways, is susceptible to a solution. All it requires is the political will to change. I’m not saying you should vote for President Trump. I’m saying you should vote for someone who’ll implement the Trump rule. So, you know.

When something is that outrageous, I wonder what is being left out.

One of the least reported but most significant executive orders Trump signed last week was reported in Broadband Breakfast, succinctly headlined “Trump Administration Pushes Deregulation.” The sub-headline said, “President Trump targeted anti-competitive regulations, aimed to promote growth.” At any other time, it would have been called “historic” and “revolutionary.” These days, it was just Wednesday.

The new order directs all agency heads, like FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, to review all regulations within their authority and identify any rules that stifle competition. It specifically focused on regulations that facilitate monopolies, that create or enforce unnecessary barriers to entry, or needlessly burden agency buying. Agencies have 70 days to submit plans for rescission.

It also invoked the “good cause exception,” which allows agencies to “dispense with notice-and-comment rulemaking” if “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” In other words, it’s meant to happen fast. If Trump didn’t mean it, he wouldn’t have bothered finding that obscure exception.

It is a well-known fact, often observed with forlorn, anguished futility, that once big corporations get their lobbies going, regulatory rulebooks begin swelling with detailed, arcane, and expensive restrictions related to their industries. It’s not that they love rules per se, it’s that they love how complying with those rules becomes so expensive and burdensome it prevents anyone else from competing in their markets.

Meanwhile, consumers pay all the compliance costs.

One classic example is requiring commercial-grade kitchens in nail salons, which actually happened in some areas. Big salons already outfitted with full food service, like hotel spas and resorts, can easily comply, while neighborhood nail joints get clipped off by the cost of installing kitchens they’ll never use— all in the name of “public health.”

Anti-competitive rules are always cloaked in language about “safety standards” and “consumer protection.” It’s for your own good.

In another well-known example from 2011, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission deployed new crib safety standards that were so strict and so specific that virtually every existing crib on the market suddenly became illegal— even ones that had safely swaddled generations of babies. The alleged villain was horrific drop-side cribs, an unremarkable and highly convenient design that had existed for decades, but in the swish of an autopen suddenly became a menace.

The new crib standards were so onerous that only a small handful of big crib manufacturers could afford to retool their factories to meet them. One 2011 estimate said it would cost small crib crafters upwards of $1 million each to comply, which instantly wiped out most boutique and artisanal crib makers, many of whom made beautiful, heirloom-quality furniture.

The result was big cribmakers gobbled up their smaller competitors like they were Gerber puffs. Now we’re stuck with expensive, mass-produced, throwaway Target cribs from three mega-brands. And now, the gorgeous Amish maple cribs our grandfathers carved from single tree trunks are felonies. (Hopefully, the crib rule will soon be in the crosshairs, and the nation can snatch its crib sanity back through the bars.)

Shredding these kinds of gatekeeping regulations will not only spur new investment in some of the most common and lucrative American industries, but will also lead to lower prices for goods and services. And Trump deployed this anti-inflationary revolution alongside his new tariffs, once again giving himself multiple ways to win.

Not only that, but the order was another torpedo launched at the ship of corporatism, aka crony capitalism, in favor of Main Street. The order prioritized "significant regulatory actions" - those aimed squarely at the biggest, most-crushing rules. And the President directed the creation of a portal allowing the public to finger anti-competitive regulations. Power to the people.

Bernie Sanders’ creaky narrative that Trump is beholden to billionaire oligarchs took another body blow.

But the move was also aimed at progressives and the deep state. It threatens their entire model of fascistic governance and fund-raising. On one hand, the left sells regulations to their corporate donors to protecting them from free market competition, and on the other hand passes rules designed to punish political enemies who don’t donate generously enough. It’s blackmail, and the losers are stranded babies and moms who can’t reach over the crib rails.

That explains why we heard nary a peep about this order— media doesn’t want us suggesting ideas to Trump’s deregulation Team.

Over the years, some previous presidents have occassionally tried to tackle this kind of over-regulation, but only timidly, and only by targeting specifically-named industries. Trump’s universal executive order is revolutionary in intent, breathtaking in scope, and historic in scale. It targets not just unneeded rules, but also rules creating structural economic barriers— especially rules protecting legacy players, credentialed gatekeepers, and favored monopolies.

It’s another wrecking ball. It could single-handedly revive countless stagnant markets. It is exciting because, if fully implemented, it could level the administrative state like antitrust law once did to Standard Oil. But suspense arises too, because it will only work if the deep state moles have been sufficiently neutered, otherwise they’ll slow-walk it and outwait Trump’s term in office. Much depends on the success of the entire plan.