Republicans are friendly to business and suspicious of regulations. They want minimal government as a matter of principle. But there is another group that wants to shrink government: professional criminals who hate cops. They want no interference when they hurt people.
President Trumps recent executive order, titled Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Cost, speaks the language of the principled libertarians, but its beneficiaries are likely to be the thugs.
The order prohibits any agency from issuing any new regulation unless it also repeals two regulations that cost as much as the new one. Costs mean the cost of complying with the regulation. The harms that were the reason for the regulation dont count at all.
David Dana and Michael Barsa observe the implications of Trumps order. The Department of Interior created a set of new regulations in response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which BP spilled nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest marine oil spill in history, and, Dana and Barsa wrote, it cost nearly $9 billion for lost fisheries and $23 billion for lost tourism, not to mention the catastrophic effects on marine life and birds. Yet under the presidents order, the only costs that matter are those to the oil companies. Costs to the public and to the environment are completely ignored. The regulations arent cheap; the cost to the industry has been estimated at hundreds of millions. But thats peanuts compared to the costs of another spill.
Trump is a big fan of Ayn Rand. Like her fictional hero John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, he wants to free business from the heavy hand of government. But this is an oddly distorted libertarianism, in which Rands villains masquerade as her heroes: those who talk most of liberty are the looters and moochers.
Conservatives worry about regulatory capture: the danger that regulators will abandon the public interest at the behest of regulated industries, keeping prices high and stifling competition. The solution is to get rid of regulation: the state should butt out and let the market operate. Theres no doubt that capture has sometimes happened. A notorious example is the Civil Aeronautics Board: after it was abolished in 1985, airline competition intensified and prices plunged.
There is, however, another way in which unworthy special interests can seize control of government. They can work to cripple regulation, so that they can hurt and defraud people. Libertarian rhetoric has turned out to be a rich resource for them.
Barack Obama is actually a better libertarian than Trump. He spent years teaching at the University of Chicago, where the idea of regulatory capture was developed. That had an impact: when he was President, he demanded (following a principle laid down by Ronald Reagan!) that any new regulations survive rigorous cost-benefit analysis. That immunizes regulations from capture, and makes sure that regulators take account of just what worries Trump, the cost to businesses. The overall net value benefits minus costs of Obamas regulations was upward of $100 billion.
Trump, on the other hand, has replaced cost-benefit analysis with cost analysis. Benefits are ignored. This isnt even business-friendly. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill destroyed hundreds of well-functioning businesses. On the other hand, the businesses that were crushed were small and had nothing like BPs political connections.
Theres room for reasonable disagreement with Obamas regulations. The calculation of both costs and benefits inevitably involves some guesswork. The cumulative effect of regulation can hamper businesses. The big difference between Trump and the standard conservatives critique of Obama is that Trumps executive order holds, as a matter of principle, that benefits dont matter. Consumer fraud, tainted food, pollution, unsafe airplanes and trains, epidemic disease all have to be put up with, if stopping them would increase the costs of regulation.
Trumps new regulatory reforms show a persistent pattern. One targets a rule that requires retirement advisers to put clients interests ahead of their own. Conflicts of interest in retirement advice, for example steering clients into products with higher fees and lower returns, costs American families an estimated $17 billion a year. You can understand why some parts of the financial industry hated the rule. That $17 billion was going into someones pocket, and that someone finds libertarian rhetoric right handy.
The Libertarian Party, which got more than 4 million votes in the last presidential election, is enthusiastic about the order. It shouldnt be. The order is a deep betrayal of libertarianism, which holds that people should do what they want as long as they dont hurt anyone else.
Freeing businesses to hurt people is not libertarian. The libertarians at least, the ones who dont see through Trump are being played. If the crippling of the state allows economic behemoths to do whatever they like to others, then what libertarianism licenses, in the garb of liberty, is the creation of a new aristocracy, entitled to hurt the commoners. This is just a different kind of mooching and looting.
It is a new road to serfdom. It reinforces the prejudices of those on the left who repudiate capitalism. The libertarians who embrace it, thinking that they are thereby promoting freedom, are useful idiots, like the idealistic leftists of the 1930s whose hatred of poverty and racism led them to embrace Stalin. John Galt is a sap.
More:
Trump's 'libertarianism' endangers the public | GantNews.com - Gant Daily
- Atlas Shrugged - cliffsnotes.com - December 12th, 2016 [December 12th, 2016]
- Atlas Shrugged Quotes by Ayn Rand - goodreads.com - December 25th, 2016 [December 25th, 2016]
- The reverse Atlas Shrugged scenario - The Washington Post - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- About Atlas Shrugged - cliffsnotes.com - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged Quotes by Ayn Rand - January 20th, 2017 [January 20th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged - January 24th, 2017 [January 24th, 2017]
- Humor: School book club loses funding after asking Ayn Rand to come speak - The Aggie - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- What does Paul Ryan stand for? - The Week - The Week Magazine - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Trump's cabinet: No fear of the best | Valdosta Today - ValdostaToday.com - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 5 Reasons Kevin Sorbo Should Play John Galt - Huffington Post - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Making Ayn Rand Relevant in the Era of President Trump - Huffington Post - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand | Conservative Book Club - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Apply Today for Maryland Taxpayers Scholarship - Bay Net - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Go Ahead, Women's Marchers, Strike. Nobody Will Miss You - The Federalist - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- The Narrative Gap - Huffington Post - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Why Ayn Rand Would Have Opposed Donald Trump - PanAm Post - PanAm Post - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged Audiobook | Ayn Rand | Audible.com - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Right Turn: Q&A with gay Republican Anthony Rek LeCounte - Metro Weekly - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Jim Brown, new Ayn Rand Institute CEO: 'Culture and society out there can look pretty irrational. Just look at the ... - Los Angeles Times - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Uber Is Doomed - Jalopnik - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Whittaker Chambers: Crusading Journalist | The Liberty Conservative - The Liberty Conservative - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Strikes, Capitalism and Trump: A Review of Atlas Shrugged - The Boar - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- ALFA BOOK STORE NEWS FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 7 THRU MARCH 11 - Alpine Sun - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Superman v Objectivism: Forget Lex Luthor and Brainiac; Could Ayn Rand Be Superman's Biggest Enemy? - Bright Lights Film Journal (blog) - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Ayn Rand is dead. Liberals are going to miss her. - Washington Post - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- A wry squint into our grim future - MyDaytonDailyNews.com - MyDaytonDailyNews - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Washington Post Op-ed: Ayn Rand is dead. Liberals are going to miss her. - Salt Lake Tribune - March 4th, 2017 [March 4th, 2017]
- Jennifer Burns: Randian philosophy losing cachet among modern conservatives - Norwich Bulletin - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Will: Novel posits scary view of current course - The Columbian - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- George Will: A wry squint into our grim future - NewsOK.com - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Jennifer Burns: Ayn Rand is dead liberals are going to miss her - WatertownDailyTimes.com - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- Is Ayn Rand still relevant 35 years on from her death? - The Adam Smith Institute (blog) - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- George F. Will: Slouching into dystopia - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - March 7th, 2017 [March 7th, 2017]
- How Conservatives Begat Trump, and What to Do About It - The ... - The Objective Standard - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Meredith Jorgensen - KCCI Des Moines - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Doctor Who: Is Regeneration a Fundamentally Abusive Act by The Doctor? - Houston Press - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- A vision of a grim future - Bluefield Daily Telegraph - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand's Morality of Egoism - The Objective ... - The Objective Standard - March 8th, 2017 [March 8th, 2017]
- Will: A wry squint into our grim future - Daily Commercial - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- What Is Wrong In Washington? - CleanTechnica - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- A wry squint into our grim future | Columns | mtstandard.com - Montana Standard - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Getting to know: Bill Robbins, with WealthForge - Richmond.com - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Front seat on a nostalgia trip - The Hindu - March 11th, 2017 [March 11th, 2017]
- Readers Write (March 12): Fishing fees, teacher shortages, urban/rural divide and culture, Uber discounts and ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune - March 12th, 2017 [March 12th, 2017]
- Gilbreth column: Disturbing concerns about artificial intelligence - Charleston Post Courier - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- How Ayn Rand's 'Elitism' Lives on in the Trump Administration - AlterNet - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Prentiss Smith: Paul Ryan ought to be ashamed, should work to fix Affordable Care Act - Shreveport Times - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- The Hidden Link Between Hillary's Emails and Atlas Shrugged - Houston Press - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Trump Administration Embraces Ayn Rand's Disdain for the Masses - Newsweek - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Crawford: American politics declining into profiteers vs. moochers - Hattiesburg American - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- American politics declining into profiteers vs. moochers - Meridian Star - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Best and Worst Political Cameos in Movies and TV - LifeZette - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Pat Grady on Atlas Shrugged, Sleep Deprivation, and Spud Webb - FeedFront Magazine (blog) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- The Fountainhead: New York, New York - Patheos (blog) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- BILL CRAWFORD: American politics declining into profiteers vs moochers - Mississippi Business Journal - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Roland Martin Goes Off on White House for Saying Trump Isn't a Liar - Independent Journal Review - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Climate Characters: Skeptical engineer questions government motives - The Daily Climate - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- I find Donald Trump contradictory going by his preferred reading list - Daily Nation - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Northern Exposure Cast Could Make Time In Busy Schedules For Revival - Bleeding Cool News - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Dynamics 365 A Familiar Minefield - SYS-CON Media (press release) - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- PBOC Loses Control Of Yuan Peg, Setting The Stage For A Global Currency Catastrophe - SilverSeek.com - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Interview: David Le'aupepe of Gang of Youths talks his uncompromising devotion to beautiful lyrics - Grimy Goods (blog) - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Ayn Rand's Controversial Play Gets a Queer Makeover - ? - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- We Don't Need Uber - Motherboard - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged Movie Review & Film Summary (2011 ... - Roger ... - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Supreme Court Confirms The Bill Of Rights Is Just About Making ... - Above the Law - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Atlas Shrugged Summary - Shmoop - Shmoop: Homework Help ... - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Paul Ryan's passionate call to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations - Washington Post (blog) - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Thomas Edison inspires Navicure Chief Growth Officer Kermit Randa - Atlanta Business Chronicle - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Where's Ayn Rand when you need her? - Spectator.co.uk - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- The Fountainhead: Hooray for Unions - Patheos (blog) - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Richard Kyte: Institutions can bring people together - La Crosse Tribune - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- Republicans, inspired by Ayn Rand, and Democrats, sticking up for trees, join forces to kill billboard bill - The Progressive Pulse - June 27th, 2017 [June 27th, 2017]
- Richard Kyte: Institutions can bring people together - Chippewa Herald - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- WATCH: Sam Bee brutalizes Paul Ryan for 'jerking it to poor people ... - Raw Story - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- 'The literal definition of fake news': late-night hosts on Trump's Time cover - The Guardian - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Love Him Or Hate Him, There's Nobody Making Movies Quite Like The Director Of Netflix's 'Okja' - WBUR - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- The net neutrality Day of Action counter-protest is a complete joke - Mashable - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- Reflection from Aspen Ideas Fest: Collective Action in the Land of Rugged Individualism - Skoll Foundation - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- As a Guru, Ayn Rand May Have Limits. Ask Travis Kalanick. - New York Times - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]