Tag: Regulations
Forty-nine states now mandate seat belt use and motor vehicle fatalities have decreased. But there is more to the story. As more drivers used seat belts, fatalities for pedestrians and cyclists increased. Why? As seat belt use rose, driving became safer. As driving became safer, the cost to drivers of being inattentive fell. And as the cost of being inattentive fell, drivers could afford to exercise less care. So as safety regulations make drivers safer, pedestrians and cyclists face greater risk. —Antony Davies, James R. Harrigan
Cancer patients often die waiting for new drugs to be approved by the FDA? Abigail Burroughs had squamous cell carcinoma, diagnosed when she was only 19 years old. She tried unsuccessfully to get FDA permission to try a new drug (Erbitux) that had shown success against her type of cancer. The FDA refused, and Abigail died at age 21. Abigail’s father formed the Abigail Alliance and sued the FDA. However, the courts ruled that Americans do not have the constitutional right to save their lives with drugs not approved by the FDA. —Mary Ruwart
In Kenya, the elephant population dropped from 65,000 to 19,000 even though elephant hunting was forbidden. In Zimbabwe, however, natives can claim, or homestead, elephants living on their lands. Natives can legally sell permits to hunt them. Zimbabwe’s elephant population grew from 30,000 to 43,000. People will protect the environment when they own it and profit from it. —Mary J Ruwart
The FDA limits the information that drug companies can share with doctors and consumers. As many as 100,000 Americans died needlessly from heart disease each year that aspirin makers couldn’t advertise aspirin’s role in its prevention. —Dr. Mary J. Ruwart, Healing Our World
We pay 5 times as much for drugs than we should. Because the FDA is blamed when drugs affect some people adversely, the agency drags out the approval process. Drug development time and cost has increased greatly since the early 1960s without any improvement in either efficacy or safety. The true cost, however, is measured in lives, as tens of thousands of people die waiting for the FDA to approve breakthrough drugs. —Dr. Mary J. Ruwart, Healing Our World
Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government. —James Madison
I viewed the marketplace as a cruel place, where you need intervention by government to protect people. But after watching the regulators work, I have come to believe that markets are magical, and the best protectors of the consumer. It is my job to explain the beauties of the free market. —John Stossel
When your money is taken by a thief, you get nothing in return. When your money is taken through taxes to support needless bureaucrats, precisely the same situation exists. —Henry Hazlitt