For being the freest nation on Earth (no, seriously, that’s why my patriotic friends tell me) the United States sure has a lot of red tape. I think the the term “regulation nation” accurately describes the United States. After all, if the costs of complying with its regulations were a nation it would be the 10th largest economy on Earth:
After years of rapid growth during the Obama administration, the cost of federal regulations is now bigger than the entire economies of all but nine countries in the world.
That’s according to the latest annual report on the regulatory state issued by the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, titled “Ten Thousand Commandments.”
Suddenly the fact that the average bank regulator makes more money than the average banker makes a lot of sense. There’s a lot of money sunk into regulatory compliance and all of that money is entirely wasted (unless you believe investing in an institution that bombs the shit out of foreign nations is productive).
There are a lot of people looking for work at the moment. Once in a while one of these poor souls will ask me what I think a good career move would be. My first question is always “Do you have any moral issue working for criminals?” Surprisingly nobody who has asked me for advice has answered in the negative to that question. But if they had I would then tell them to get a government job. That’s where the real money is made. You usually have to start out as a peon but you can quickly work your way up the ladder. When you get high enough on the ladder you gain authority and connections. The authority is there for personal amusement and allows you to get revenge on all of those kids who laughed at you in elementary school. Connections, on the other hand, are a valuable currency because when you rub enough elbows with enough government bureaucrats you can whore yourself out to a regulatory commission, lobbyist group, or non-profit organization. After that you really rake in the cash!
America is still a land of opportunity, so long as you have questionable or entirely absent morales. As the linked story shows government is a growth industry!