Life, liberty, and property are the foundation of Western law. Frederic Bastiat wrote extensively about how the law exists because of rights, rights don’t exist because of law. Because rights are violated by immoral actors, we create laws to lay out the recourse due to the victim and punishments for the violator. Our constitution, in its original form, was designed to protect life, liberty, and property but has been perverted to empower government over the people. The 10th Amendment was created to protect states from overreaching federal powers. Today we see an ever-growing government wrapping its tentacles into every aspect of your life, liberty, and property.
Out anti-trust laws were created to protect the citizens from the undue accumulation of power by actors, which could use that power to deny others the opportunities to compete (deny the pursuit of happiness and purpose in life). If such a condition arises and is left unchecked, it would result in a two-tier society of haves and have-nots.
Similar to the feudal system which used to exist in Europe, you eventually have a permanently divided society of social classes where you are doomed to remain in the lower class if born into it. The beauty of America is that the founders created a meritocracy whereby people are to receive what they deserve, a “just” society. In today’s America, meritocracy is struggling on life support, and regulation is the core reason why.
Ownership is the right to determine what to do with a resource. If you purchase a car, you can do whatever you want with it if you own it. You can paint it any color you want, regardless of how ridiculous it looks. People can even destroy their property if they wish to, just for fun. If you’re going to purchase and destroy a famous car, you have the right to do so.
If you own a business, you choose what to sell, who to hire, what to pay, what hours or days you work, how to advertise, and more. When government steps in and regulates you, they deprive you of your right to control your resource (your ownership). Business owners often gamble their life savings on their businesses based on their plans to manifest their goals and belief in their abilities.
Once regulated, they become nothing more than a glorified manager of a state-run business, yet they carry all the risk and must split the profits through taxes. That’s quite the partnership when one partner invests nothing, has no liability, does none of the work, gets a portion of profits but suffers no losses, and, most importantly, has the final say on everything. No business owner would ever enter a partnership under those conditions; it must be forced upon them.
When the company fails, the owner loses their investment; when it is profitable, they must share profits through taxes. Before making a profit, you must overcome the effects and expenses of regulations. Every added startup cost dramatically reduces not only the chances of a business succeeding but the chances a person will even choose to try.
These added expenses (often license fees, classes, and certifications or required equipment) benefit the government by generating revenue, creating government jobs, or forcing you to purchase from government suppliers. By the stroke of a pen, bureaucrats create an unnecessary expense (and often a barrier to entry or a crippling cost) for the business owner while placing their selves in a position to profit or grow their governmental organization (without taking on the responsibility of overcoming the challenges reality throws at us). This is an absolute betrayal of public trust since the public is paying the salaries of the bureaucrats who are using their position to increase costs to the public (thereby lowering the standard of living) and doing so for their benefit. Bureaucrats who do so should be dishonorably discharged from government and sent back to the private market to fend for their selves like the rest of the American people.
When one person or entity can have the final say without challenge, they have majority ownership rights. When the government regulates a business, they have taken the rights of majority ownership (and private property) from the rightful owner. When government regulates an industry, they have taken majority ownership (and confiscated private property) from all the major players. If we discovered that a billionaire had acquired majority ownership in the major players in a specific industry, i.e., cell phones (At&T, T Mobile, Verizon), there would immediately be an anti-trust case. This would happen since one entity controls the whole industry. However, it is precisely what occurs when government regulates an industry. Constitutionally speaking, national regulation is a private property issue, a 10th Amendment issue, and an anti-trust issue. A free society must not only be vigilant when it comes to anti-trust as it applies to private competition but also governmental powers.
When large companies lobby for regulation, they know they are proposing a private/government partnership. They know the regulations create a barrier to entry for any would-be upstarts and creates a crippling expense to small companies on the rise. They are offering the government the rights of majority ownership in trade for using force backed by law to crush any potential new competition. The handful of businesses that lobby for regulation knows it will reduce the industry to a few key players and secure their position for good. This is a key reason why the children of founders who inherit a company they didn’t build are eager to partner with the government (The Murdoch brothers and FOX News are perfect examples). They never built a company or learned how to build or maintain momentum. Many MBAs also fall into this category. They are in a position to make key decisions for a large company. Still, if they haven’t built one from the ground up, they are missing the wisdom and knowledge of key fundamentals and will be tempted to partner with the government to protect their company from the competition. The competent never want regulation; they want to be free to crush competitors by offering better services at better prices. They also want to avoid anyone getting in their way or adding expenses that raise the cost of their service/goods for their customers.
When the federal government regulates an industry, the key players in the industry, through a partnership with the government, have created an effective monopoly under the auspices of private ownership and competition. When such a partnership is established, the government has effectively nationalized the industry, and all actors involved should fall under constitutional laws since they are now a proxy of the government.
Politicians sell regulations to the public as being for the “protection of the consumer.” Still, the dirty little secret is that it is protecting the income streams of government officials and large companies. The result is that it results in much higher costs for consumer goods and destroys innovation through competition. The public is denied life-improving innovations by would-be upstarts.
They know what they are doing.
They are pulling the ladder up.