"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."


Sunday, November 14, 2010

Regulation's Additional Cost

Undoubtedly it is the case, yet scarcely remarked upon -- except by Adam Smith-- that the more plentiful state regulations are -- and the more invasive they are -- the more incentive there exists for affected parties to find any and all means available to shirk the burdens of those sanctions.

Herein is an additional cost upon the public. Not only are its resources being directly taxed by the arm of the state and its extended reach, but its actual treasury is being drained by the additional costs of enforcing taxation (direct or indirect) that the affected citizenry has increased interest to avoid.

The rule of thumb is simple: the more burdensome a cost-by-regulation is the more those touched by it will try to avoid it and the more the state will then have to expend enforcing it.

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