"Bad Luck" - starting to catch up with us? - Granite Grok

“Bad Luck” – starting to catch up with us?

I have seen the words that some of our Industrial Barons have said – their “business lightening” wouldn’t even flicker today if they had to do it all over again.  But, given a mention of the author who help give rise to our name, I decided to use it all:

FEDEX FOUNDER: I Couldn’t Start Company with Today’s Economy, Regulations.

Last month, a CNBC headlined noted, “Subway ‘Wouldn’t Exist’ If Started Today Due to Regulations: Founder Deluca.”

In 2011, Bernie Marcus said the same about Home Depot, which he founded.

Or to put it another way:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

“Or as some would say: ‘You didn’t build that,’” Glenn added last year when he quoted Robert Heinlein.

(H/T: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit

Three different industries, three different biz models – all doomed to failure if attempted today?  Do I blame Obama directly?  No.  But we all should examine the Jungle of Regulations that has grown up since those times – the bad luck that will plague, not those of us reaching the end of our careers, our children and theirs.  We are in the middle of the birthing of a government spawned sclerosis that has taken two generations to achieve the current state of growth we see now; 0.1% growth, 0.4% growth in the last two quarters.  Hardly a gift to our offspring, eh?

Envy, the perception of “unfairness, and the call of “must have safety above all” – the essence and reason behind regulation blizzards.  After all, we cannot make decisions for ourselves.  Layers and layers and layers of bureaucrats endlessly thinking and decreeing.  Yes, some may well be needed – but all that we are getting?  At what point is enough?  It seems that our betters have not yet grokked more than a 1/2 step out from their actions.  Too many bureaucrats working in their own little silos – not comprehending (or caring) that while their single set of regulations may do little harm, the accumulation of all of the government silos – Federal, State, and local – have an effect that goes beyond their idea of “this will be good for you and if not for you, your customers, your supplies, your families, or friends, or even strangers (there, that get everyone six degrees outbound?).

Home Depot, Subway, Fedex – those men built those companies, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs and made wealth for many of them where no wealth existed before.  They made their money by serving others – offering products and services at a price that consumers felt fair and voluntarily gave their money for them.

Capitalism.  Yet, many believe it to be “misfortune” for the masses.

They will give us all “bad luck.”  Especially when this arises:  THE EPA’S ‘MAKE SURE NOTHING GETS DONE UNLESS WE LIKE IT’ MANDATE:

As described, this is a vast expansion of the law which first gave rise to “environmental impact statements” decades ago. These already odious monuments to overwhelming paperwork and institutionalized busywork will apparently morph into far more burdensome “environmental and climate change impact statements.”

Carrying through with the logic, virtually any attempt at economic expansion or improvement could be affected, not just “major projects.” Such statements could, and I believe eventually would, be required for any government or private-sector construction project, and perhaps even for an ordinary business decision which has the subjectively determined potential to increase carbon emissions, meaning almost any project or business action, large or small.

The Progressive Administrative State incarnate – WE can make the rules, for we do not need legislation – or legislatures.

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