Yes, you did read that correctly, the impotence of regulation, not the importance of regulation. A small chart from John Stossel:
Business practices which killed workers were declining before there were bureaucrats to insist upon business practices which didn't kill workers.
Business practices which did kill workers declined just as fast after we had bureaucrats to stop business practices which kill workers as before. Business practices which kill workers declined just as fast before we had bureaucrats to stop practices which kill workers as afterwards.
The value of bureaucrats making rules so that business doesn't kill workers therefore seems to be zero.
Except, of course, that no one has as yet studied the cost to business of paying for the bureaucrats who have no effect, a cost that could have been applied to not killing the workers.
Isn't bureaucracy wonderful?
