Saturday, May 19, 2012

Eliminate the EPA


South Carolina has weakened the constituency of its Department of Health and Environmental Control or DHEC.  Many people are calling for reeling back the regulatory power of the EPA, or federal Environmental Protection agency.  Wall Street is weakening the regulations put in place after the catastrophe that was 2008. The thought is, there is too much regulation and it is stifling business.  I can't say whether this is true or not but I would like specific examples of regulations that are hurting American business instead of sound bites and rhetoric.  

However until I see these crippling regulations I have an alternative proposal, lets eliminate EPA, SEC and DHEC completely!  I have one caveat to this proposal.  Any business practice that leads to emissions harmful to humans or chemical spills that might endanger anyone, should be dealt with by immediately executing the CEO, CFO and COO of the company at fault.  The same idea should be applied to financial deals.  While this may sound draconian think about it.  No pesky regulations, no hindrance to business, everyone can go about the business of making money efficiently and directly.  CEO's and other top management are not all criminals in fact it is the less than 1% we have to worry about so we won't miss them, we only ever see them on TV when it is too late.

If we do have the occasional mishap where our hunting, fishing, drinking or living areas are damaged  irreparably we can quickly have the executive management team commit public Harikari and make way for more efficient management to run the company. Stock prices will be protected, the public can have peace of mind and profits will soar.  So you ask me,"What if small amounts of pollution are released over time and it not obvious that our overall health and beautiful surroundings are impacted?"

Easy, any new CEO must agree to live within 500ft of their largest facility and executive management must agree to have any emissions from their facilities pumped into their homes before emitting to the atmosphere.  Any dumping of waste must go to the CEO's drinking well or % added to their food directly.
The same thing can go for Wall St.  Any contract of employment will have compensation tied directly to performance.  If the company makes money and continues to do well after the CEO's reign they will be supremely re-numerated.  If performance does not improve then all top management and their families down to second cousins once removed will have all of their possessions confiscated,  Cayman Island accounts and US citizenship (or tax sheltered foreign citizenship's) too.

What a simple and purely 'market driven' idea.  I am sure this is something we can all get behind. Because as we all know when huge amounts of money and questions of morality and legacy are at stake our benevolent CEO's always make the right decisions, take full responsibility and quickly resolve any issues without lengthy and frivolous litigation or political manipulation.  So how about it?  Complete removal of hindrance to business in exchange for a paltry executive performance clause in contracts going forward!
Jonathan Swift had a similar proposal almost 300yrs ago when English nobility allowed the Irish to starve.  He was no more serious than I am now.  The problem today is we have sound bites and 30 second segments to address complicated issues and it doesn't work.  I believe people genuinely want more jobs and a simpler America that is safe and secure.  This is something all of us want.  As our society has grown and the world become a more inter-dependent mechanism you can't make sweeping statements that sound promising on the surface but completely ignore the relationships that hold the American Economic engine and our well-being together.  No one wants inefficient regulators hampering progress and ingenuity but we also don't want our rivers posioned, our land stripped of resources, no long term planning and the majority of people left behind for quarterly profits.

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