Any review of our regulatory structures or the orders that are issued therefrom must weigh the cost of regulations against their benefits. Everyone who makes or installs air bags in cars, smoke detectors in office buildings, HVAC units in businesses and homes and tamper-proof packaging for food and pharmaceuticals, just to name a few, has a job, thanks to regulation. And when we don't have adequate regulations, bad things happen. We don't have to look that far. Look at our financial crisis. Look at the recession. A financial disaster was created by a lack of regulation and by erroneously relying on the narrow self-interests of corporate management to protect their own businesses, let alone the common good. Last year, the Office of Management and Budget performed a cost-benefit analysis of Federal regulations, which showed that the benefits of regulations far outweigh their costs. Between 1999 and 2009, the estimated cost of regulations were between $43 billion and $55 billion, while the estimated economic benefits were between $128 billion and $616 billion.
Editor's note · Context
Kucinich discusses the importance of regulations and their economic benefits.
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