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It’s Too Bad There Isn’t A Regulation Against Conservatism
Americans are fortunate to have regulatory agencies that protect our food, medicine, and air and water quality unlike the Chinese and Indian people who have been given Americans’ jobs to guarantee higher profits for American corporations. When toothpaste, toys, and even pet food imported from China showed dangerous levels of toxic materials, Americans were furious that the Chinese sent the poisoned products to Americans, and many conservatives reacted the loudest and with the most indignation. However, it was America’s corporations who imported and sold the poisoned goods, and if Republicans have their way in Congress, American made goods will rival the toxicity of Chinese imports and the public will have conservatives and the Chamber of Commerce to thank for killing our citizens.
It is fairly common knowledge that Republicans hate regulations because their masters at the Chamber of Commerce and Koch Industries have directed them to eliminate regulations so corporations can enjoy higher profits. If one were to believe the Chamber of Commerce, Democrats create new regulations for the sole purpose of breaking corporations by setting standards and rules with no scientific data and no specific reason other than to steal profits from business. Republicans never point out that regulations are created to protect consumers, the environment, and public safety from unscrupulous business owners who would kill Americans for higher profits if they could escape prosecution. Even with regulations in place, many corporations and industries find loopholes around the rules or ignore them entirely to meet production schedules or make higher profits. In the past year or so, Americans saw firsthand what happens when West Virginia miners worked in hazardous conditions and oil-drilling platforms avoided safety protocols in the Gulf of Mexico. In both cases, company owners disregarded the regulations for the sake of production, and human beings perished and an entire ecosystem was nearly destroyed. Also in both cases, Republicans attempted to mitigate the culpability of the offenders, and apologized that the government was holding the owners responsible for the death and destruction they caused.
In the past month, Republicans like Darrell Issa have asked corporations to tell them which regulations are preventing them from making higher profits. The Republicans framed the discussion as if job creation was their goal, but the corporate world is making record profits and sitting on $1.1 trillion but have not shown any interest in creating jobs. Without regulations, businesses can use sub-standard materials, pollute the environment, and endanger workers with impunity to increase their profit margin at the expense of consumers’ safety. Asking corporations to list regulations they think are burdensome is like asking a criminal if they want the penal code eliminated.
Republicans recently held a forum for businesses to complain about costly government regulations, and they only wanted to hear about the burdens regulations caused businesses. Of note was one contractor who complained that a test for lead was unnecessary and that the inspection fee was burdensome. Most responsible businesses factor in inspection fees as the cost of doing business, and on a secondary level, the business owner should feel a responsibility to conduct business without endangering the environment or subsequent generations. Republicans never want the public to hear the benefits of regulations, because like most Republican policies, when the public learns the truth, they will reject Republicans’ arguments in favor of their own safety. Regulations protect the labor force as well as the public in general, and in fact, regulations protect the poor, wealthy, Democrats and Republicans alike.
If Republicans really want regulations eliminated to help corporations and businesses realize higher profits, perhaps they should take the lead to demonstrate their trust in an industry without regulations. Darrell Issa sent letters to 150 corporations to solicit their ideas on regulations that are too burdensome, so he most likely sent a letter to the airline industry. One can imagine that airlines complained that the regulation that jets be inspected at regular intervals, or that pilots must be licensed before they can fly a 747 prevents higher profits. The next time Mr. Issa travels from Los Angeles to Washington, the airline should find a homeless person to pilot a 747 with only one engine for Issa to ride in. If the plane crashes, it is too bad for Issa because the airline made higher profits.
Because Republicans are against regulations, the next time Dick Cheney needs a pacemaker or heart pump, someone can find a high-school dropout to install a dirty automobile water pump in the ex-Vice President’s chest for $5 an hour so the corporate-owned hospital can make higher profits. If Republicans hurry and get tort reform passed, Cheney’s survivors will be forbidden from suing for damages so the company that manufactured the broken water pump can make higher profits.
Regulations are a necessary cost of doing business and are in place because businesses cannot be trusted to protect workers or their customers. There is a reason for a regulation that requires airlines to inspect their airplanes, or to require pilots to be qualified to fly jet aircraft. Despite Republican or Chamber of Commerce complaints, regulations are not put in place or enforced to destroy the profit margin of a business or corporation. There is also a reason there is judicial recourse for workers or consumers who have been harmed by unscrupulous businesses. The miners who perished in West Virginia and the oil-rig workers who were blown to bits in the Gulf of Mexico would still be alive if the regulations in place had been followed.
Americans depend on government regulations to guarantee our medicine, food, water, and environment is safe through regulatory agencies. Consumers cannot trust businesses or corporations to police themselves or use the safest materials, and even when regulations are in place, every industry will find the means to avoid the rules. Republicans have made it their ultimate goal to adopt a laissez faire attitude toward business and to eliminate regulations to increase corporate profits. Corporations and businesses are making higher profits but it is never enough for greedy Republicans. Conservatives should remember that regulations protect liberals and conservatives, rich and poor alike, and it is the government’s duty to protect its citizens. Protecting Americans is not a priority for Republicans, so the government must protect Americans from Republicans. It is too bad there is not a regulation against conservatism.
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9 Responses to It’s Too Bad There Isn’t A Regulation Against Conservatism
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Reynardine
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 10:28 am
Understand that it isn’t even the profit motive that is behind “deregulation” and “tort reform”. The ulterior motive is to disabuse us “little” people of the notion that our lives have any value, that we have any rights worth defending, or that we have any power to defend them with. Where do you think all this rage at the American people for sympathizing with the Egyptians comes from? This denunciation of them as Marxists? This equation of democracy itself as mob rule? Why is it necessary for the plutonomist cadre to impoverish the middle class? Vast wealth is not the end for them, but the means. These are pathological individuals who cannot feel “big” until they have ground the rest of us down to microscopic dust. Should they succeed, they will proceed to prey on each other until there is only one left, who will then dwindle and starve for want of anything further to sustain it.
proudfoot
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 11:52 am
The Republicans find it important to regulate a women’s body through government expansion funded by tax hikes but don’t mind Americans eating plastic rice becasue some corporate whore(s) complained to their lap-dog Issa, about paying to much in taxes.
How do the Republicans ever get people to believe their fallacies and hypocrisies is beyond me and I wish we could send them all too purgatory.
jlt
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Had to think about this..a bit! It is not the republicans or the liberals that are the problem, to me! It is the radical fringe- the ‘great unwashed- uneducated- exclusionary- religious zealots- my god is better than your god ‘gaggles of both sides that are driving common sense into the ditch!
None of the horrid –despicable proposals are coming from those with an ear to the people but to the ‘G almighty dollar ‘ coming from Corporate America and International interests and their fringe idealogical sects!
And, We, have elected them!–not based on the truth of their experience or integrity but on the commercial selling of the salacious propaganda and lies allowed to go unchecked!
When horrid proposals are allowed to get play from media , it is our duty to call them out publicly and loudly!
Get the damn facts out!
Sorry for the diatribe…
proudfoot
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
One correction, I didn’t vote for any Republicans, I’m a happy supporter and voter of Anthony Weiner.
Reynardine
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
It’s by pretending to the white lumpenproletariat – the ones that used to be middle-class – that it’s those other little people, the even poorer ones, the even smaller ones, the even less WASPy ones, who are causing the rising cost and falling standard of living, that all social safeguards are only scams to protect those other, worthless people from the consequences of their own inferiority, and that when the “inferiors” and their unfair little safeguards are gone, everything will magically go back to a mythical 1950 America, where there is a chicken in every pot, the Herald- American on every front porch, and everyone goes to church on Sunday. Of course, we know what really happens. But they won’t, not until it’s too late. America is not the land of Marx, only of marks.
Andrew
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
This article is disgusting.
object reason
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
This article is based on a common misconception that is prevalent in our society. This is the idea that government can regulate away all the dangerous things. The fact is regulations did NOT stop the oil disaster or the miners perishing in WV. The SEC regulations did not prevent Bernie Madoff’s ponzie scheme or the Mortgage fallout. Even with heavy regulations, dangerous situations will arise and bad things will happen. No amount of government oversight can prevent this. Also, our government is broke. Even with regulations in place, there is no money to enforce them. Currently, we are on the brink of a financial crisis caused by too much government spending. The IMF is considering a basket of currencies to replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If this was to happen the result would be catastrophic for the purchasing power of Americans. We need to pursue alternatives outside government to place incentives in the right place for businesses to do the right thing. Consumers must exercise their power of choice, buying products from responsible businesses. With an intelligent and forward thinking consumer base businesses will fall into line because not doing so will lead to no sales and bankruptcy. The answer lies not in regulation, but in education and human progress.
Shiva (Moderator)
Feb. 14th, 2011 at 10:29 pm
At some point you hav e to put some responsibility on the corporations (Such as BP). They have proven time and again they will not be responsible. I am sure there are areas of over regulation but the real problem with your arguement is that you cannot show how many disasters that were prevented by regulation.
The BP spill was a result of a company not following their own regulations. In every example you provide, the problem was a corporation NOT following the rules or the regulations.
There may come a time when as you suggest no regulation is needed. However as long as corporations cheat the rules and their own rules, it will be necessary. The country is not broke. We spend billions at war. We spend billions on aid to other countrys. Our problem is not overspending, but spending in the wrong places. Giving tax breaks to the rich, then taking things away from the poor.
No one thinks government can regulate everything. However giving corporations free rein to screw you, destroy the environment will not solve anything either.
I too long for your world in your last few sentences, but lets be honest. there is hardly a corporation that will go along with you. Also remember that 50% of the top 500 stocks profits comes from over seas. Our purchasing power is diminishing at a rapid pace.
Rmuse
Feb. 15th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
I normally don’t answer absurd comments like “This is the idea that government can regulate away all the dangerous things. The fact is regulations did NOT stop the oil disaster or the miners perishing in WV.”
The reason the regulations didn’t prevent these disasters is because the fines for breaking the rules aren’t painful enough. You lot seem to think it’s okay to kill a murderer as a means of prevention, but not for corporations who kill innocent workers. You also support the party that is breaking unions. Union mines have very few deaths because a miner can say “I’m not working there, it’s too dangerous” and there is an inspection. In WV the miners knew there was an imminent danger but were told to work or be fired. They died.
The oil rig explosion was a direct violation of safety regulations and the same scenario unfolded. Workers were frightened there would be an explosion and were offered termination or death. They also died. You are so enchanted with a glob of goo (fetus) but you willingly condone killing workers and women.
Come back to me when you stop speaking from both ends of your mouth. It looks ridiculous.