Musings on regulations

Hey aren't you happy I am not writing about the mosque!  TMI on that sit if you ask me.

I just discovered I am free to use foul language on this blog!  More freedom!  I still don't know if I will but I like it that I can:)

I can relate to businesses not liking to be regulated but when I do not know if the next thing I eat will give me salmonella I see the wisdom in it.

I can tell you as a parent how regulated I am.  The buckling up of seatbelts in carseats can be a half hour routine in winter.  Heck, there are laws I did not even know about at first.  I was enjoying a cheap cup of Kwik Trip coffee when my daughter was a baby until I realized I could NOT leave her in the car, not even right in my view for a minute in very mild weather.

And my two year old son had a temper tantrum at the mall because he wanted to be carried.  Any parent knows you go down a slippery slope when you start rewarding temper tantrums.  But is there a law against public tantrums.  Actually, yes disturbing the peace, and judging from the other people in the mall they were ready to convict me so my son got his way.

So none of us even in this free democracy can do whatever we want when there are consequences to others, or in the coffee case paranoid reactions to stuff (or a godsend to Starbucks who has a drive thru so they can sell their overpriced coffee).

Do these regulations cost me money? Yes, besides the coffee price differece, the cost of car seats and many others.

So I have little symathy for companies that want to save a buck on safety measures that may have prevented say a huge oil spill.

Still, I know some regulations are overboard.  I dont know why my dog cant poop (perfectly natural biodegradable stuff that he puts right on top of the bunny poop) anywhere but our yard yet our neighbors can pollute the air with huge clouds of bonfire smoke and leafburning smoke and wood burning (and trash burning, although technically not legal) smoke.
I know its unpleasant to step on dog doo.  But it washes off.  Damaged lungs are much harder to fix.

But since burning is popular in my neighborhood, there is no regulation.  So lack of regulation in this case costs ME money in the form of extra albuteral inhalers, other prescriptions, downtime from being sick and trips to the doctor.

Then there are subdivisions who regulate what you can plant, what fence you can put up, even whether or not you can have a rummage sale.  And some people like that amount of regulation.

I think we all have more regulations that we dont want and not enough of the ones that we do want.  But it is hard to please everyone.