Update and Quote of the Day: The Cost of Federal Regulation
Last year, at this post (see Update 2), I found a subscriber-only Wall Street Journal article saying that it’s running at about $1 trillion in the US (you read that right).
Here’s an update from Mike Franc at Heritage.org (quote was originally seen at a Forbes subscriber-only list of comments at other locations, which said that it also appeared at HumanEvents.com):
Federal regulation is a hidden tax on American consumers and the U.S. economy, and the total cost, according to a recent study conducted for the Small Business Administration, is a staggering $1.1 trillion—about the same amount the federal government collects in income taxes every year. These costs come in various forms: the cost of paperwork filled out by businesses, higher prices at stores, hampered innovation, and sometimes even reduced health and safety. While some regulation is necessary, such as rules to protect against fraud, much of it is both unneeded and counterproductive.
Geez, that’s only federal regulation. Who knows what you’d have to add to include the states?
Never forget that the costs of regulation are in general not very related to a person’s income, and that they therefore fall disproportionately on those least able to afford it.
