How Could Any Society Advance Like This?

Imagine a young, growing family.

Thanks to a collapse of the economy (and especially real estate), the small house that was supposed to be a “starter home” turned out to be quite a bit longer term, and it’s bursting at its seams.  Meanwhile, to preserve the modest wealth accumulated over generations, they decide to take the financial risks associated with adding on a small apartment for grandpa, which is just barely possible because the husband works in construction and can do much of the project management and work himself.

But there’s a problem: local zoning requirements for entryways and land coverage and state environmental regulations concerning septic systems add not just costs, but also the time necessary for careful planning to make all of the pieces fit in what is made to be a very complex puzzle.  They don’t have the money, and he doesn’t have the time, so they start thinking about buying another house.

What they determine is that — with some financial help from Grandpa 1 and a co-signing signature from Grandpa 2 — they can afford a house a few miles down the road that’s just the right size, provided they finish the basement for grandpa.  It takes a family.

But there’s a problem: septic systems in the state are rated according to the number of bedrooms and assume two people per bedroom.  The regulatory agency figures out the amount of waste and water for one person, multiplies it by two, multiplies it by the number of bedrooms, and that’s the amount that the septic system must be able to handle.  And by the way, a bedroom is defined as any room with a closet; it doesn’t matter if it’s going to be an office or a playroom or an entertainment area.

So, a family of four in a three bedroom house cannot add a room with a closet unless they pay thousands of dollars to upgrade their septic to one that can handle eight people, as if closets can flood septic systems.

This leaves our hypothetical family a handful of options:

  1. Give up on the idea of improving their lives.
  2. Go somewhere that won’t force so many challenges on them.
  3. Put themselves in massive amounts of debt to pay for superfluous architectural designs and/or excess septic capacity.
  4. Do the work illegally and simply accept the increased risk of living in a “non-conforming” house.

To a young, striving family, the same considerations apply to both time and money.  Every dollar they spend trying to meet the requirements of some central planner making rules based on charts and figures — not the situations that individual families actually are in — is a dollar that cannot be spent advancing a career, building a business, educating children, or any other activity that would improve their lives while benefiting society.  Likewise, every minute that they spend working their way through regulations, going over options, or doing work themselves rather than hiring professionals is a minute that they cannot spend on their own dreams or turning their own children into well-balanced adults bent on making the world a better place.

Note carefully who is most affected by this regime.  Wealthy families don’t care (as much) because they are able to pay the premium that the area imposes.  Less wealthy families that, for whatever reason, are not inclined to strive don’t hit these obstacles because they are not content not to be in motion.   This applies to any sort of productive activity, whether it’s housing, career, community involvement, and on and on.

The people hindered by fetters on action are those who are intent on acting, on improving their circumstances.  As a group, they are arguably the most important gear in the economic machine, as the folks whose role it is to turn investments into goods and services. And these are exactly the people who’ve been leaving Rhode Island for more than a decade.

The principle can be expanded to include restrictions on innovation.  A centrally managed society must be placed in a manageable box that legislators and bureaucrats have a fighting chance of being able to conceptualize.  But innovators who think outside of the box by definition bedevil them.  That’s true even for individuals and businesses whose innovations are not flashy, but are in the way that they manage employees, resources, and time.

The principle can be expanded, even farther, to encompass all of the laws and regulations that chip away at our bank accounts and our schedules.  With the possible exception of the recent drug charge (depending on your politics), progressive blogger Bob Plain’s rap sheet is essentially a story of failure to comply with rules and hardly indicates a criminal mentality.  It is, rather, evidence of the obstacle course of compliance that modern life has become.

For a person who didn’t have anything much planned, the hours spent complying or dealing with the consequences of not doing so replace inactivity with useless activity.  For a person whose calendar is filled with as much productive activity as can be fit in a day, the time and stress of dealing with the rule-makers and their enforcers is a cumulative loss to everybody.

Our hypothetical growing family thus finds itself wasting resources that its members know best how to maximize (and who have the greatest incentive to do so).  In their actions and their innovations, they are boxed in by the limitations of central managers, who cannot possibly consider every individual’s circumstances when setting the rules.  And when necessity or distraction push them afoul of some foolish law, the common good is arguably the last thing to be considered.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in The Ocean State Current, including text, graphics, images, and information are solely those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the views and opinions of The Current, the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity, or its members or staff. The Current cannot be held responsible for information posted or provided by third-party sources. Readers are encouraged to fact check any information on this web site with other sources.

YOUR CART
  • No products in the cart.
0