From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:
New NJ Beekeeper Regs Show Why Government Should Focus on Punishing the Guilty, Not Regulating the Innocent.
Certainly, everyone has a right not to be harmed (or their property) by neighboring operations, based on the principal of property rights. But neither should a person be interfered with by government for engaging in legal activities on his own property that harms no one else. Why punish the innocent?
And that’s the dirty little secret of government regulation; the punishing of the innocent for the wrongdoing of the guilty. A good poster child for this premise is Sarbanes-Oxley, the giant financial regulatory bill passed after the 1999-2000 Enron accounting scandals. Enron, Worldcom, and a few other companies defrauded investors—and were prosecuted under pre-existing laws. Yet Congress and President Bush passed Sarbanes-Oxley, allegedly to “prevent” future fraud but which in reality burdened the thousands of companies that didn’t cook the books with new regulations—in effect, punishing the innocent many for the wrongdoing of the few.
We see this pattern time and again. Somebody does something wrong, and regulations reign down on an entire industry or sector.
Yeah ok.
No more guardrails on curves until a motorist goes over on this one, then only this one needs a guardrail.
No more requiring deck baluster spacing to be less than 4″ until a toddler head gets caught, then only that deck need be rebuilt.
No need for protective gear in hazardous occupations! Only if a worker in a particular factory is sickened or killed, then only that factory should be “punished!”
Pitch your gloves! Pull off your safety glasses! The whole concept of humans learning from their mistakes is thrown out the window. What an innovative thinker, what a disrupter. Was he born yesterday? Or is he … yup a Randite. And a leading candidate for a Darwin award, as long as he lives his own life by these principles.
I am inclined to agree.
The traditional libertarian answer is that the potential loss of profits that would surely result from irresponsible corporate behavior is enough incentive to make regulations unnecessary.
Back in the real world, when regulation has lapsed, people have died.
Corporations are mysteriously amoral super-persons and “innocent victims” at the same time.
No justice for the poor little Masters of the Universe, and owners of an entire political party.
Government steps in when there is a need. Some bad eggs ruined it for everyone? How unfortunate.
I have a rhetorical question; If there were no regulations to begin with, how on Earth do you punish the offenders? They can’t very well create a law specically designed to punish a small few… nevermind the fact that they’d still need to define the limits just as this new law did so… Mr Laferrara is arguing from his preferred reality rather than being intellectually honest as he so often prefers people to be.
And, Burr, this law is basically for hobbiests. So no corporate profits were harmed in the crafting of this legislation, Thank Ayn.