Regulation isn't always a bad thing

Republican proponents of the trickle-down theory believe that if government stays out of the way, the wealthiest in our society will use a portion of their profits to create jobs and bolster the economy. They are against any kind of government-imposed regulations, which makes me wonder how they come to terms with one of the hottest and most-regulated economies in the world.

For all of China's faults and crimes against its own people, there is no denying that it is prospering at a record rate. In a world where few countries currently have healthy economies, China's financial success is worth noting.

I think the trickle-down theory works, but only for a limited time. It gives a sense of false hope, as it did during the Reagan-era when we didn't really know any better. Didn't really know about the long-term damage that massive deregulation can do. We just wanted to find our way back after some tough years under Jimmy Carter.

Human nature takes over when profits reach obscene levels because of a lack of rules. The rich start looking for ways to get richer, which often means they share less while padding their own bank accounts. That eventually hurts the economy. Jobs are lost so that public companies can report bigger profits. Eliminate a thousand jobs and Wall Street applauds that company.

In bad times, like we're in now, the richest five percent rarely get hurt that badly. The only thing that trickles down is economic pain for the rest of us.

I have no love for China. I knew a Chinese woman who was tortured by the government when she was a young girl. She told stories that were horrific. China is a country that along with Japan is paying poachers to slaughter endangered animals in Africa. China's pollution is infamous. And while they are moving to greener technologies, they aren't doing so out of the goodness of their hearts. The government has finally realized that pouring toxins into the air and water isn't good for the economy or national security. So they are pursuing greener innovations that they will eventually sell to the rest of the world while we try to stuff mud and old tires into an oil well that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico and the economies in those states.

The trickle-down theory is naive and short sighted. It relies too heavily on people in power always doing the right thing. Power often corrupts. In time, when enough CEOs and boards of directors do the wrong thing, the entire economy collapses. We need regulations to avoid the wild roller coaster rides we've been on in the last 30 years. I support certain regulations because history proves that we need them in order to keep the air clean and the power plants safe. We need certain regulations about outsourcing jobs. We've lost entire industries, like the garment industry, because no one regulated how many jobs could be exported to countries like China.

Well-formed, targeted regulations can work just as well in a democracy as they have in China. Each day lost debating the merits of financial reform in Washington is another day lost to the Chinese. We don't have to copy China's formula, but we should stop with the old, tired arguments about government regulations always being a bad thing. This isn't the Wild West. We need some rules, some laws and some regulations.