After hearing one Dr. Richard Williams of the Mercatus Center speak about government regulations (of which there are 165,000 pages of and growing by 80,000 pages a year), he brought up a point I have been mulling over for a bit: Regulations serve the purpose of closing the knowledge gap. For instance, you can't check up on how your food, drugs, clothing, entertainment and other consumables are prepared because you do not have the capability or time. Therefore government regulations via agencies fill that role for you. However with the advent of the internet, that knowledge gap is closing rapidly and it is now possible for you, the individual with the help of other individuals to find out information on whatever it might be you are looking to consume. I do not know whether all government regulatory agencies should be done away with, but this idea of the internet filling up the knowledge gap the agencies otherwise would need to fill, is an interesting idea. For more on regulations check out this Mercatus Center policy resource.
I am reading Atlas Shrugged right now. Last year I read The Fountainhead. Overall I like the economic philosophy of Ayn Rand, however not her general philosophy of Objectivism. I have also enjoyed the stories in the books. Reading these Rand works is essential if I am to be current within the circles I run in here in DC. A friend referenced this quote so I looked it up. It is by John Rogers (a blogger, and then made more famous by Paul Krugman): "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
2 comments:
What a good ending quote. Poor Ayn.
For real. I was thinking you'd like that one.
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