The federal government has two main vehicles for diverting private resources to achieve policy goals. Regulation can be an important government function. With a better regulatory system, we can enjoy a healthy environment, safe workplaces, more innovative products, and greater opportunities and prosperity for all Americans. This paper examines the important role regulations play in a vibrant economy, how they differ from other government programs, why they can produce unintended consequences, and how reforms could help us achieve the benefits regulations can provide with fewer negative outcomes. Poorly designed regulations may cause more harm than good stifle innovation, growth, and job creation waste limited resources undermine sustainable development inadvertently harm the people they are supposed to protect and erode the public’s confidence in our government. When regulators behave this way, they invariably cause unintended harms. Yet, despite the best intentions, government regulation too often disrupts the marketplace or picks winners and losers among companies or technologies. Sensible, evidence-based regulations that respect the fundamental role of free-market competition can provide vital public benefits – such as protecting the environment, public health and safety, civil rights, consumers, and investors. Large swaths of the American economy are distorted by government mandates and incentives, and the vast majority of binding “laws” are not enacted by our elected representatives in Congress, but are promulgated by agencies as regulations. Recent decades have seen a decline in economic growth and innovation, and one important cause is poorly-designed government policies. Yet, the United States faces growing challenges in an increasingly competitive global economy. 1 Through protecting property rights and fostering healthy competition, democratic capitalism rewards work and ingenuity which improves our lives and has liberated more people from poverty than any other system. The American free enterprise system has been one of the greatest engines for prosperity and liberty in history, and has the potential to deliver a promising future for the United States and the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |