John and Mary: A Regulatory Soap Opera

The morning alarm rings. John and Mary start another day in our regulatory soap opera.

The alarm clock that awakens them is run by electricity provided by a utility regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and by a state regulatory agency. John goes to the bathroom, where he uses a mouthwash and other products made by companies regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. He only mildly loses his temper trying to open the bottle of aspirin with the child-proof cap required by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

In the kitchen, Mary reaches for a box of cereal containing food processed by a firm subject to the regulations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and required to label its product under rules of the Federal Trade Commission.

John, who is under doctor's orders to limit his calorie intake, uses an artificial sweetener in his coffee. Since the banning of cyclamates by the FDA, he has switched to saccharin, but he's worried because it too is on the FDA's proposed ban list. All this is doing his ulcer no good.

As John and Mary pull their car out of the garage, the seat belt buzzer goes off--courtesy of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The car they are driving to work cost them more than they expected because it features a catalytic converter and other expensive devices stipulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The car can use only unleaded gasoline--another government requirement. They drive at speeds regulated by state and municipal ordinances.

Mary enters the office where she works, located in a building whose construction was repeatedly delayed before it met the EPA's regulations and state and local building codes. She was hired after a suit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had accused the firm of sex discrimination.

That morning, Mary provides information about the financial activities of her company to an investigator from the Securities and Exchange Commission. She also completes a variety of statistical forms for the Bureau of the Census.

In the personnel office, Mary learns that she has lost her retirement benefits. The small company by which she is employed recently terminated its pension plan because of the onerous requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

We catch up with John at the factory, where he works under conditions negotiated by his union, chosen, after a prolonged strike, in an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. The cumbersome equipment he currently uses was selected in order to meet the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration--which could return any day for another surprise inspection.

During their lunch hour, John and Mary negotiate for a mortgage on the house they are buying with financing from a savings bank, regulated by an agency of the Treasury Department. They request a guarantee subject to detailed regulations by the Federal Housing Administration. If they had had the time, they would also have liked to visit their commercial bank, regulated by the Federal Reserve System (or Comptroller of the Currency) to obtain a loan for the furniture they need. But the paperwork requirements--involving truth-in-lending, equal credit opportunity, and other credit regulations--will force them to come back the next day.

At home in the evening, John and Mary watch television, including advertising regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Simultaneously, John is cleaning his shotgun, regulated by the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau, while Mary lights a cigarette, whose package label is mandated by the Surgeon General and whose sale is regulated by FDA. Watching, they are barely aware that they, in turn, are being watched over almost continuously by an imposing number of government agencies.

This scenario is hypothetical. But each of these incidents occur daily in the lives of American citizens. Government regulation increasingly affects what we wear, what we eat, how we earn our daily living, what we can buy, and how we use the products that we own.

The regulatory soap opera plays continuously in every home and workplace in America . . . and we have little choice but to tune in.

Murray Weidenbaum is chairman of the Center for the Study of American Business.