IGI-111
God was a dream of good government.
12d ago
I think the central point of this piece is sound but that it underrates how much of this dispute is about power rather than how well the bureaucracy works.
The idea that regulation grows to meet state capacity should be taken a lot more seriously than it is here, and so is the idea that bureaucrats aren't all good faith actors.
For instance, the unpopularity of Gensler's SEC isn't down to an inability to process things due to the requirements of ass covering. It's an active nuisance that sued whole financial sectors in bad faith and continued to do so after being slapped by the courts. And all to attempt an extralegal extension of its remit and play favorites for political favors.
It is true, most of the issues with regulation can only really be resolved by changing the law. But unless you want those idle hands to start making stuff to do, you also need to cull the bureaucrats.
The idea that regulation grows to meet state capacity should be taken a lot more seriously than it is here, and so is the idea that bureaucrats aren't all good faith actors.
That might not be incompatible with what Scott says. If read in a certain way (I'm not sure he's actually trying to say this), one could come to the conclusion that adding more bureaucrats will result in more red tape being unnecessarily made, but that once it's there, cutting bureaucrats won't get rid of it easily. The red tape is now in place and can be abused across bureaucracies. Once the legal bureaucracy is in place to sue over various things, then that can be used easily by remaining bureaucrats to be targeted in suing any other bureaucracies that don't have the resources to preemptively protect themselves.
Maybe on some level, we can think of this like the arguments that gun control won't work in the US, because guns are already too ubiquitous here. Trying to remove them all will just result in the people who don't comply having undue power.
I don't believe in the ratchet for government regulation because there are many examples of periods of deregulation, and we are all contemporaries of Javier Milei.
I understand most people don't actually agree with me that "let people figure things out" leads to no more insane results than statism. But I know it does because I've seen it.
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Notes -
I think the central point of this piece is sound but that it underrates how much of this dispute is about power rather than how well the bureaucracy works.
The idea that regulation grows to meet state capacity should be taken a lot more seriously than it is here, and so is the idea that bureaucrats aren't all good faith actors.
For instance, the unpopularity of Gensler's SEC isn't down to an inability to process things due to the requirements of ass covering. It's an active nuisance that sued whole financial sectors in bad faith and continued to do so after being slapped by the courts. And all to attempt an extralegal extension of its remit and play favorites for political favors.
It is true, most of the issues with regulation can only really be resolved by changing the law. But unless you want those idle hands to start making stuff to do, you also need to cull the bureaucrats.
That might not be incompatible with what Scott says. If read in a certain way (I'm not sure he's actually trying to say this), one could come to the conclusion that adding more bureaucrats will result in more red tape being unnecessarily made, but that once it's there, cutting bureaucrats won't get rid of it easily. The red tape is now in place and can be abused across bureaucracies. Once the legal bureaucracy is in place to sue over various things, then that can be used easily by remaining bureaucrats to be targeted in suing any other bureaucracies that don't have the resources to preemptively protect themselves.
Maybe on some level, we can think of this like the arguments that gun control won't work in the US, because guns are already too ubiquitous here. Trying to remove them all will just result in the people who don't comply having undue power.
A Gordian knot with a Mangioni solution!
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I don't believe in the ratchet for government regulation because there are many examples of periods of deregulation, and we are all contemporaries of Javier Milei.
I understand most people don't actually agree with me that "let people figure things out" leads to no more insane results than statism. But I know it does because I've seen it.
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