We’ve all heard the expression, “There ought to be a law.” Really? If laws were the only thing necessary to create goodness in people, then America ought to be an amazingly pure nation. There are estimates that between local, state and federal laws and regulations, the total number exceeds 1 million in the U.S. The law-abiding strive to obey the law – if they know about them at all – but the lawless could care less and don’t bother. Therein lies the rub.
Go back in time, way before Moses came down from Mount Sinai with Ten Commandments carved in stone, carried in his powerful arms. Consider the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve had but one law. Don’t eat the fruit of the tree at the center of the garden.
How did that single law – straight from the Creator to the first couple – work out?
Be it gun control, Dodd-Frank/CFPB regulations, or HUD’s alleged preemption for manufactured housing, we see endless examples of laws that aren’t working as intended.
Chicago has tough gun laws, and parts of town are a war zone. France has tough gun laws – and it was illegal for those radical Muslim terrorists in Paris to have those weapons they used to shoot up the Charlie Hebdo offices last year. Did those gun laws stop them? We all know, the answer is no. Creating explosive devices is illegal, yet the jihad-minded Boston Marathon bombers did it anyway.
Part of what’s wrong for the manufactured housing industry is precisely the knee-jerk reaction all too common in the U.S. today – an impulse to pass a law or attempt to control or regulate almost everything.
Some laws are necessary and good. Other laws are a total waste of time – they’re not only unnecessary, they are counterproductive at best, harmful or evil at worst.
Part of what people, companies or organizations – such as associations for business, or political parties in the public arena – ought to do is enter into vigorous debates over the principles that make for good or bad laws, good or bad regulations.
A little common sense could go a long way.
In the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown, Congress ran to pass a law that is arguably harming millions of Americans today – Dodd-Frank as administered by the CFPB’s regulations. No wonder many Republicans want to just repeal, replace or reform the CFPB.
Democrats are often said to love laws, be it the gun control being pushed in the wake of the Orlando mass-murder committed by a jihadi terrorist, or ObamaCare (the misnamed ACA), Dodd-Frank or so many other laws designed to control wide swaths of the economy. There are times that Republicans also embrace counterproductive regulations.
The result? We are seeing more businesses going out of business today than are forming, for the first time in decades. Since small business is the proven driver for employment, how does sad fact of shrinking numbers of U.S. small businesses help job creation?
They say you can’t legislate morality. That’s nonsense. All good laws are based upon eternal moral principles. “Thou shall not kill“ is a law in any civilized society. Moses received that law from the hand of God. Cain slew Able with a rock. The FBI says more die from blunt force trauma inflicted by hammers and clubs every year than die from rifles.
Rock, Hammer or Club Control, Anyone?
Rather than have a thousand laws on various forms of weapons or tools that misused could kill, a simpler law that defines murder as illegal could cover these issues so much more effectively.
We must return to common sense, which trumps politically correct or knee jerk laws almost every time. When a group passes a law or pushes for a regulation, it’s likely they have an agenda that serves them, but harms others.
This is why in America, citizens are supposed to be sovereign.
The Constitution limits and controls government, not people. While the number one job of government is to protect citizens from foreign and domestic threats, the greatest threat to most people throughout history was from actions taken by their own nation’s government.
Let’s learn not create laws and regulations number 1 million-and-one, one-million-and-two or one-million-and-three unless and until we see with clear eyes that it really is good, enforceable and meets the moral and common sense tests.
And then let’s look to see how many of those 1 million laws and regulations are choking off jobs, or causing other economic injury or harm to personal liberty.
Restoring the free market, limited by common sense – ‘thou shall not steal, thou shall not defraud, thou shall not kill’ laws – would work pretty darn well compared to the huge volumes of laws, rules and regulations that we endure today. ##
Managing Member of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC.
Publisher of Industry leading MHLivingNews.com,MHProNews.com
and Inside MH video series.
MHI member, elected MHI Suppliers Division board member.
Consultant and service provider to the MH industry.
Office 863-213-4090.
Connect on LinkedIn –
https://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Publisher – MHLivingNews.com and MHProNews.com
It’s #1! Get our industry leading, free, Twice Weekly emailed news, tips updates (our emailed Newsletters look like this) – sign up free in seconds at MHProNews.com/Subscribe.
