Red tape

In a perfect world there is little doubt that companies would survive and thrive solely based on their ability to meet the needs of their customers.  By being nimble, constantly adjusting to changing demands of customers and market dynamics.  Those companies best able to continuously innovate would pull ahead of their competition and earn outsized returns (inviting new entrants to the market place).  This type of competitiveness undoubtedly benefits the consumer as companies look to out-compete one another in an innumerable ways including cost efficiencies, speed to market, product features, branding, etc.

When we restrict companies by layering on burdens we reduce competitiveness by increasing barriers of entry to new firms and require existing firms to spend more resources to comply with and keep abreast of new regulations.

While there are any number of ways to measure burdens on companies one non-scientific method is looking at the Federal Register.  The Federal Register was created by an act of Congress in 1935 and signed into law and requires the "prompt and uniform printing and distribution of public documents" to include "Presidential proclamations and Executive orders; documents the President determined to have general applicability and legal effect; documents required to be published by Act of Congress; and documents authorized to be published by regulations."  See here (PDF) for way more information than you could possible want to know on the history of the Federal Register.

The first issue of the Federal Register was published on March 14, 1936 and contained 16 pages.  In present day there is an official annual refresh of the Code of Federal Regulations spread across 50 titles (each title refreshed once a year but on different schedules).  Out of curiosity I browsed a few random titles to get a sense of the scope.  Topics ranged from "Navigation and Navigable Waters" to "Indians" to "Money and Finance: Treasury."  Within the 50 titles most have multiple volumes here is a brief sampling of the PDFs:

• Title 6: 276 pages
• Title 31 volume 2 (of 3, parts 200-413): 583 pages
• Title 33 volume 3 (of 3, parts 125-129): 1,031 pages
• Title 50 volume 1 (of 4, part 17): 138 pages

If I recall correctly I believe in total it runs well over 35,000 pages (I know I have read it somewhere but could not find a reference).  Clearly it is impossible to expect anyone or any company to understand this all encompassing attempt by the federal government to control virtually every aspect of our lives.  One cannot forget that this only represents Federal regulations and state and local government statutes are layered on top of this.  It is unfathomable that we ask businesses and individuals to snap to all of these requirements.

I say we unleash the chains binding our country's corporation to see the benefits that unfettered competition would bring to consumers.