Here is a response I posted to this article; Remodeling costs could jump next week because of new federal rule, contractors say By Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer on Cleveland.com (The Cleveland Plain Dealer web-site) that I often peruse.
We have the essence of the political/philosophical conundrum in this country all right here in a nutshell. On one hand we have our government stepping up and doing a little (very little) regulating of an industry in the interest of public safety & on the other hand you have private industry (and some consumers) upset that it will drive up the costs.
The usual way this works is industry has an insider in the government making sure these regulations never get written or enforced but this time one slipped through. Whether it is enforced remains to be seen. Now, the next thing to happen will be the industry having it shills go out & convince the public what a bad rule or regulation this is (notice wording of this article's headline). The industry hopes this will cause enough backlash that the rule is rewritten or never enforced. Usually the loudmouths win and "we the people" are once again saved from the evil "big government."
Wake up people! Government regulations are there to protect us from private industry whose ONLY concern is profit. It is the lack of regulations and enforcement that has allowed the energy industry to continue raising our oceans and heating our planet while they continue to make record profits. It is this lack of regulation that has allowed the health insurers to drive up costs over 200%, drop clients and still make record profits. It is this lack of regulation that allows big pharma to peddle every new pill it can (whether it is safe or NOT!) & in many cases has the government do it for them. What new vaccine will we or our kids need next year? It is this same lack of regulation and enforcement that has allowed our financial institutions to play blackjack with our economy while we lose our homes and jobs.
Granted that for regulations to work they must be applied fairly and enforced. But to those that always talk about wanting "smaller government" meaning "less/no regulations" be careful what you wish for because we are living with the results of de-regulation.
As for this particular rule, I have no clue as to what it governs or how it is to be applied even after reading the informative "news" article. One thing is for sure, any extra costs will be passed on to the workers and/or consumers and then we can decide if the industry survives.
Of course I can't leave out the last thing to happen. If this industry is well connected (as most are) and has it's insiders properly in place it can survive by making sure the rules are never enforced or if things go bad enough helping that industry get subsidized or bailed-out.
That's the kind of "big government" I can do without. That's not government at all. That's corporatism. To those running around screaming "socialism" and worried about the government taking over industry, you have got it all backwards. The banks and private industry took over our government long ago.
