Environmentalism: Taking It Back To Basics
There are about 8,000 blog posts here and about 19,000 comments on them, some of which get pretty far out into the weeds. Accordingly, now and then it may be a good idea to discuss the simplest, most basic concepts that are affecting our society vis-a-vis environmental protection.
The Trump administration is doing an excellent job at fulfilling its campaign promise to remove regulations in every industry that touches our lives, so as to boost the profits of the corporation that deliver these products and services.
While some of these regulations were unnecessary (or even abusive) in the first place, most play (or played) an active and important role in protecting our health and safety. This is true in the restrictions that have been developed over long periods of time on industrial pollutants, auto safety, healthcare, building codes, food contamination, and consumer protection in arenas from children toys to banking services and everything in between–literally anything that we and our families breathe, touch, consume, and use in our lives–at home, at work, and at play.
The absence of some of these health and safety issues will be affecting you and your children long after Trump leaves office (via whatever means). Yet, even though you’ll be unlikely to attribute the lung disease you develop 10 years from now from the aromatics of coal plants to Trump and his team, it will shorten your life and diminish its quality just as much.
Again, each restriction that is removed makes corporations wealthier by lowering their costs, but here’s the basic concept I promised: this happens at the expense of your well-being.
Enriching corporations is a piece of cake if you unburden them from the costs of doing business that previously existed. Just remember that these costs are disappearing; they’re just coming off a corporate P&L somewhere and being passed along to you and your children.
Some people think this is making America great again; they’re called heartless idiots.
Laws are made necessary by the inability of persons to restrain their passions (notably greed).
History is filled with abuses requiring preventative legislation, from extreme child labor, to toxic patent medicines, to unsafe food fillers and additives, to hazardous workplaces.
Rabid deregulation has been usefully compared to the removal of traffic controls on public roads.
Craig,
It’s an odd thing about regulations, those affected complain regulations are too complicated, unnecessary, unfair etc. Those advocating regulations range from sincere individuals urging sensible, necessary legislation to pressure groups representing often bat-shit crazy organizations.
One thing is obvious, once a regulation is established, no matter how irrelevant,obsolete or just plain incomprehensible, bureaucracy will fight tooth and claw to retain and enforce all regulation.
During the Obama years the President used regulatory power as a means of circumventing the legislature. Instead of debated legislation, bureaucratic administered regulation supported by Presidential Fiat became the way his administration by-passed the legislative process.
To their shame, the US Congress went along with this development because it was convenient to avoid debating controversial or political unpopular legislation and excluded ordinary voters from decision making.
To a certain extent rolling back a vast array of Presidential Fiats, obsolete or irrelevant regulations including those instituted for narrow political purpose has been a very good action. President Trump’s desire to curb the growth of Executive power by forcing the legislature to debate and enact legislation is good for American democracy and good governance
The President and administration will be judged by how effective or harmful removal of individual regulations proves. The danger of “throwing the baby out with the bath water” exists with every reform, and only time will reveal the wisdom or failure of his Policy.
Congress should be acting as a safeguard. If Congress believes a regulation is necessary it can include the regulation in legislation.