Bureaucracy and Regulation

Just two metro areas in Virginia reported more homicides than all the rest of the state combined.

State lawmakers possess an infinite source of good intentions. Wielding the power of this limitless benevolence and munificence, politicians are regulating the lives of citizens while eviscerating their existence in the process.

How much licensing requirements are designed to “protect” the health of the public, and how much to restrict competition, may be gauged from the fact that giving medical advice free without a license is rarely a legal offense. Only the sale of medical advice requires a license.

Since outright grants of monopoly or quasi-monopoly would usually be considered baldly injurious to the public, governments have discovered a variety of methods of granting such privileges indirectly, as well as a variety of arguments to justify these measures.

Proponents of socialized medicine assert that markets cannot be trusted with healthcare due to "market failure." But the assumed "failures" of health markets are not improved by socializing healthcare.

School children learn that there are three branches of government. In actual practice, there is a fourth branch, the permanent bureaucracy which includes legions of civilian and military agents, officers, and administrators committed to protecting their own interests.

Even if one strongly believes that IP laws are essential for creativity, it is difficult to justify the expansion of IP protections that have taken place in recent decades.

Even The New York Times now admits there is a deep state — and that it serves its own agenda while ignoring the elected civilian government.

A lobbying group in Canada is demanding home-sharing services like Airbnb face stiffer government regulation. Activists claims its all for "the community." But huge corporate hotel firms are the only ones likely to really benefit.

School boards are political institutions often more interested in social policy than in education.