Business thrives with rules and regulation, so why is the US hellbent on getting rid of them?
As I write this it feels as if the entire world is unraveling. Truth has been downgraded as a not required component of society with fictional facts and bald-faced lying accepted as not only normal but expected.
The civility and respect I was raised by my parents to show others is tested by a lack of personal control and often times hate openly displayed not only in the media but simple interactions every day. What the fuck happened to us?
Where did integrity go?
But aside from the hopeless feeling about democracy and politics I struggle with too often (and mostly start my day with in the mornings very early) I have one thing one my mind that I cannot reconcile.
Capitalism is built on the idea the playing field is level.
We all know that’s absolute bullshit, but at least that’s the “supposed” starting point.
Having rules and regulations means the ability to know the system isn’t gamed against you in favor of someone else. From the smallest to largest company that sense of playing by the same rules at least allows for planning and aids competition.
When did the “conservative” part of this country decide that no rules or regulations would be right or better? For who?
Today it appears the SCOTUS will openly “repeal” settled law and precedent in Roe v. Wade. The rationale coming from a place so RADICAL that I cannot even fathom the mental gymnastics to get here. States have more autonomy than the federal government? Courts can take away rights settled fifty years past?
The ridiculous pomposity of this position is breathtaking.
And the consequences are more broad than the issue it represents or the other “social” issues being hammered upon by a political party that has become a mockery of the honesty, truth, fairness, and compassion it was founded upon long ago.
So where am I going with this?
Imagine you are a business that reaches beyond your town, even beyond your state. Your customers, clients, offices, employees live spread out over this country or beyond.
Now, take a look at the map you can find anywhere on social media and news sites showing the current status of states with bills enacted or ready to be passed if this opinion from SCOTUS becomes law of the land (since they are now being the judicial activists they so conveniently vilified as the boogeyman up until this point).
What do you see?
I see a United States of America that looks remarkably like the US during the civil war.
I see an environment where you have no certainty or security your business will be able to survive in a cycle of spastic “fuck you” laws knee-jerked into law by whatever some aggrieved state lawmaker decides to cram through their partisan legislature.
I see businesses failing because they can’t keep up with how to do their thing in every state because every state is differently regulated.
I see a business climate that is unsustainable long term.
I see a recession heading straight for us, but no one cares.
If you’re a planner, how do you offset the risk your business may be impacted tomorrow in one state by an asshat legislature or governor when it’s not impacted in another state?
And this is where the no regulation folks go apeshit. But but but, if there weren’t regulations everyone has the same opportunity.
Uh, NO.
Who has the opportunity?
The one with more money.
The people with “connections”.
That isn’t a level playing field, that’s a closed system without oxygen.
And a system with a rate of decline that will make the burning of Rome look like a backyard BBQ.
No matter how many rules or regulations, a little or a lot, business thrives when it stands on a level playing field.
The sports we covet as entertainment (football, baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis…) ALL HAVE BOUNDARIES clearly marked around the playing field.
Everyone involved knows and accepts those boundaries whether they like or disagree with them.
Those sports THRIVE within the boundaries and rules.
Business does that too.
We are precariously close to a time where boundaries, rules, and our collective sense of value and worth is peeled apart and broken.
Will we as a people and country survive? Probably.
But, I’m not certain of how that will look like in the end and THAT is the same for anyone running a business of any size or scale today.
Planning for the future is mostly an illusion of convincing yourself that you have a modicum of certainty about the outcome.
