Gedankenexperiment

[cjsmith]

What would the US economy be like if, every time its government passed a law regulating some form of commerce or industry, the GOVERNMENT was directly obligated to pick up the tab for compliance? How would the legislative process be different from what the US has today? What social patterns might result?

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

For example, someone in the recycling industry might push for an actual mandate for the recycling of type-6 plastics. That turns out to be very expensive to do - but they could make a lot of money off of doing it, if it were mandated, instead of taken care of by the market... I realize a recycling example probably pushes the wrong buttons, but you get the idea.

Ah. I misunderstood you. In fact, I'm probably still misunderstanding; as I understand it, the very same thing could and probably does happen today. If Company A is suddenly required to recycle all its type-6 plastics, Recycler B probably doesn't care whether Company A gets the funds to pay B from the government or from raising A's prices.

As for getting sick of paying: we've got a long way to go before we reach european levels of taxation.

Agreed. Would this surpass them? Are any of the Europeans sick of paying yet?

Start small: tax gas up to the $4/gallon level. *That* will have an end-user impact...

Somehow I doubt it would get us functional public transportation, though. :-)