Rockridge High School
Taylor Ridge, Illinois
Teacher: Barb Downey
Government as Regulator
By Shawn McKeag
12th Grade
What Should Government’s Role Be As Regulator?
Does the government have too much to say in how we live our daily lives? What are the consequences of these government rules? Americans today live in a country filled with government regulation. Our nation needs regulations such as speed limits, work safety, and alcohol limits. However, there are too many unnecessary regulations our government enforces. Building permit requirements, parking laws, and many curfew laws are flat out ridiculous.
We need government regulation to improve our work conditions, ensure public safety, and keep the environment clean. When the government regulates every aspect of our life, our freedom is taken away along with the number of choices we can make in our life. If we are forced to conform with every government regulation, time and productivity are lost taking our happiness away with them. When a regulation is not met or broken, police and other governmental people get involved leading to costly lawsuits and court visits. The taxpayers should decide if something is being over-regulated, and it should be voted on by them to ensure the matter is being fairly attended to. In America today, there is too much government regulation.
Today, music albums that contain explicit lyrics have a black and white label on them to warn consumers of such sinister content. The federal government feels this label will prevent underage kids from listening to and purchasing the vulgar material. The tiny label really does nothing. I have bought several CD’s containing the label without a parent present. I bought this type of material in sixth grade, and I see kids younger than that buying it at local stores. The cashier never asked me how old I was or if my mother said it was all right to buy the album. There is no need in regulating explicit music if the law is not going to be enforced.
In the state of Illinois, it is illegal for me to drive home from a friend’s house after eleven o’clock. If I am out past eleven, I have to be coming home from work or a school function. This curfew regulation is absurd. The law is supposed to protect me from gang activity or drunk drivers. A law like this may be useful in a city, but it makes no sense for it to be enforced in a rural community like mine. It is a waste of time and effort on the police’s part to enforce the law and a huge loss of freedom for me.
One of the most over-regulated parts of society is parking. There are too many ways to regulate parking in town or in any area: parking meters, NO PARKING signs, and signs that indicate how long you can park and what hours you can park. Who determines what sign goes where? It needs to be kept simple. If your car is not interfering with traffic or a business, I say you should be able to park wherever you need to park.
Last June my father added a four foot section to our shed roof and shingled it and the rest of the roof. He thought he did not need a building permit, since it was a small building. Since the shed was fixed to the ground with concrete, my dad had to have the shed inspected, have the materials checked out, and wait two weeks for a building permit. The shed was not done in time for my brother’s graduation party. If the shed would not have been attached to the ground, my dad could have gone on building without a permit. Why should there be a difference if it is fixed to the ground or not? It does not make any sense.
The county’s government regulations cost my family money, time, and a nice looking party. It would have saved the county officials and my family a bunch of time and energy if there were not so many useless conformities. Why does there have to be so many rules and codes to follow anyway to add a four foot section to a roof?
Our government regulates too much today. The government should be able to regulate what is necessary as long as it does not interfere with our personal freedoms or cost us a lot of time and hard work. The government’s role as regulator should take everyone’s personal freedoms into consideration and help Congress realize if they are making the right decision. I should not have to give up all of my freedom and pride as an American citizen to conform with every law. America is the land of the free.
Here are the questions to be answered from the reading.
Q1. What is the only way to prevent hijackers from gaining control of an airplane according to the unknown author?
The only way to prevent hijackers from gaining control of an airplane is to harden the cockpit. Hijackers would need small explosives to blow up the door to the cockpit, and small explosives are easy to screen at the airport.
Q2. What are the arguments given by lobbyists for the Bells in favor of HR 1542 (Tauzin-Dingell Bill) and arguments given by their opponents against legislation?
The lobbyists in favor of the bill would speed deployment of broadband services and help jump-start the information technology sector. Opponents feel the bill would give the Bell company a stranglehold on high-speed Internet service and delay the development of next-generation Web technology.
Q3. Why do small-business groups like HR 1831? From the small amount of information presented in your reading, do you think the legislation is a good idea? Why?
Small businesses that do not dump a lot of waste are exempted from cleanup costs, therefore a polluter cannot seek payments unless the small business fails to meet the conditions for exemption. This legislation is a very good idea. Small businesses should not have to pay cleanup costs if they are only dumping small amounts of ordinary garbage. As long as they meet the exemption conditions, a polluter should not be able to seek payment.
Q4. Give an argument in favor of government regulating activities such as rollerblading and bungee-jumping.
Activities such as rollerblading and bungee-jumping are a public safety risk, and there needs to be tougher regulation. Rollerbladers interfere with traffic much worse than a normal pedestrian because they are less predictable and some bungee-jumping sites are much too dangerous.
Q5. Define a "burden hour."
A burden hour is a measurement of the time it takes to collect data and fill out federal forms, reports, and surveys.
Q6. Why was Connecticut Senator, Joseph Liebermann, concerned enough to vote against the nomination of Professor John Graham as administrator of the office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the current Bush administration?
Liebermann cites that Professor Graham’s past criticisms of clean-air and clean-water statutes and questioned whether he would weaken federal health, environmental, and safety standards.
Q6a. Graham is a proponent of "risk analysis." How is risk analysis defined on page 992 of the May 5, 2001 issue of Congressional Quarterly Weekly?
Risk analysis calculates the likelihood of a hazard against the costs and benefits of preventing it.
Q6b. Who was the first president to order federal agencies to weigh potential costs and benefits when writing a rule?
Jimmy Carter was the first president to order federal agencies to weigh potential costs and benefits when writing a rule.
Q6c. How much would compliance with OSHA’s regulations to limit injuries or disabilities from performing repetitive tasks cost according to an estimate by business groups as reported in the 2000 CQ Almanac? What was the response of OSHA and Labor Department officials?
Compliance with OSHA’s regulations to limit injuries from repetitive tasks would cost $14 billion to $80 billion a year. OSHA and Labor Department officials say the rule is supposed to be flexible and would not require most companies to act. It would cost $4.2 billion annually, but it would save $9 billion in lost productivity.
Q7. What was the makeup of the "iron triangle" during the Reagan years and what do environmentalists and consumer activists foresee as its composition in the current Bush administration?
The "iron triangle" was an unbreakable alliance among Democratic committee chairmen, agency officials, and interest groups that worked in concert to achieve common goals.
Environmentalists and consumer activists say the new triangle would be composed of industry officials, the White House, and GOP committee chairmen.
Q8. Name 5 actions of the Bush administration that have drawn criticism from Environmentalists.
Bush has drawn criticism by reneging on his pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, rejecting the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, reversing Clinton rule to reduce the levels of arsenic in drinking water, reversing regulation on tougher cleanup standards for hardrock mining operations, and signing legislation to kill a Clinton ergonomics rule.
Q9. What did the executive order issued by Ronald Reagan in 1981 and still in effect today, require agencies to prove before new regulations were enacted? How did the Democratic House counter in 1986?
The Reagan executive order in 1981 required agencies to prove that a regulations’ benefits would "outweigh" its cost. In 1986, the Democratic House deleted funds for OMB’s regulatory division from the fiscal 1987 budget.
Q10. On the average, how long does it take to build an airport? A highway?
The average time to build a highway is twelve years, and the average time for an airport is fifteen.
Q11. Discuss the pros and cons of licensing requirements.
The pros for licensing requirements are that it shuts down businesses that may run a false business or have people working who are unskilled. The cons are that it stops young entrepreneurs from making money, and they are forced to go to a beauty school which in most cases do not teach braiding. Licensing requirements also shut down businesses that take away business from other salons.
Q12. Discuss the pros and cons of master plans and planning departments.
The pros of these two commissions are they help look ahead and prevent damage down the road. They are an improvement over a free market. The cons are the people’s loss of freedom and productivity of the project. Too much power is given to planning departments and master plans.