Freedom?  What Freedom?

By Fred Gielow

January 15, 2006

We like to think we're free, but are we really free, when so much of our daily life is prescribed by federal, state, and local governments? A booklet I received recently makes the point by describing John and Jane:

 

• Their clock radio goes off at 7 AM. The Federal Communications Commission regulates, not only the airwaves used by their favorite radio station, but also the content of the programming.
• The radio is powered by electricity, provided by a utility regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
• The label on their mattress is regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• Their cotton sheets are regulated by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• John uses toothpaste, soap, and shampoo regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. If his shampoo was tested on animals, those testing procedures were regulated by the USDA, as well as by National Science Foundation research protocols.
• The quality of water running out of John's shower is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. John finds it hard to rinse shampoo out of his hair, due to his low-flow showerhead, mandated by the Department of Energy.
• Jane must flush their low-flow toilet twice. Its low capacity is required by the Energy Policy Act.
• Jane's coffee and the sugar she adds to it are regulated by the FDA and USDA, as well as by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service artificially inflates the price of milk Jane uses in her coffee, as well as the price of cheese, butter, and other dairy products.
• The fruit Jane serves for breakfast is regulated by the EPA, the FDA, and the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service.
• After breakfast, John drives the children to school. The kids have to ride in the back seat, because passenger air bags required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have killed children riding in the front. John always buckles his seat belt, but is no safer with airbags, which NHTSA design standards ensure will protect adults who do not buckle.
• Baseball helmets the kids take to school are regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• The lunch they eat in the school cafeteria is regulated by the Department of Agriculture.
• Jane takes her SUV to work. She would have preferred a station wagon, but auto manufacturers stopped making them when they couldn't meet National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's fuel economy (or CAFE) standards. Up to now, SUVs have been exempt from CAFE standards, but that exemption will end soon.
• Jane takes a roundabout route to her office, because the most direct route is reserved for "high occupancy vehicles" during rush hour times. States must provide HOV lanes and roads for carpools, or forfeit federal highway funds, thanks to the EPA's air quality State Implementation Plans (SIPs).
• Department of Labor rules, covering employees' benefits where Jane works, and also civil rights, hiring and firing practices, labor relations, and occupational safety, are estimated to cost Americans in excess of $90 billion per year.
• John wants to build a deck for his house, but can't, until he receives a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. His neighbors didn't get a permit, and the Corp told them their property was a wetland.
• For supper, John and Jane bake a frozen pizza. The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service dictates its composition: "meat pizza," must be bread-based with tomato sauce, cheese, and meat toppings, containing cooked meat made from not less than 15 percent raw meat. Their cheese pizza, however, is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
• After dinner, Jane calls her mother, at rates constrained by the Federal Communication Commission.
• John fills his pipe, and lights it. His tobacco is regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, part of the Department of the Treasury.
• Then, John works on his tax forms, as mandated by federal tax code. The code is contained in four large books, each of which is thicker than the Bible. On the other hand, the Code of Federal Regulations consumes 25 feet of shelf space. It's estimated they cost an average family more than $8,000 a year, in addition to what John and Jane pay in income taxes.

Our lives are severely constrained by government dictum. If "freedom" means making our own decisions, we don't have much freedom left.

(Information and excerpts from "A Day in the Life," a booklet by Susan Dudley, director, Regulatory Studies Program, Mercatus Center, George Mason University, 3301 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 450, Arlington, Virginia 22201. Phone: 703-993-4930. Fax: 703-993-4935.)

Fred Gielow is the author of "You Don't Say," and is involved in property rights activities at: http://www.youdontsay.org/.