Policy Regulations II Policy Studies

Policy Regulations II Policy studies II- Regulation Government Regulations Protect the Consumer, the Businesses and the Economy Since America was in its infancy, the public has looked to federal and state government agencies to protect it from harm. Whether it was the threat of international terrorism or scams from international gold diggers, society has turned to its government and asked it to regulate such activities to protect American residents.

While the public recognizes and appreciates such efforts, it quickly changes its tune when it comes to government regulations with regard to business. For the most part, business owners try to avoid government regulations and often lobby to have the government's involvement in their interests reduced. Business owners complain that government regulations have become so prohibitive that it is causing a significant problem for them in the way they conduct their business.

On the surface, it can appear that government regulations interfere with the ability to conduct business, but if one examines the issue at a deeper level one will find that the government regulations actually protect businesses, consumers and help the economy by providing safe parameters for everyone involved. Almost everyone knows a person who has been hurt by a business. Whether it was a failure to comply with good business practice or an out and out illegal rip-off, the person ended up losing money or merchandise.

By the same token, most business owners can tell tales about businesses that got taken by shady and manipulative consumers. If government regulations in place today were to be removed or reduced it would open the gateway for many more problems than are currently witnessed which in turn would not only hurt the general population but would also have a negative economic impact on the nation overall.

One strong example of how government regulations are a benefit to the economy, the population and the business world, can be seen in the regulations regarding hazardous waste. In government regulations about hazardous waste the ground water becomes protected and ground water is used extensively for various business enterprise. In addition, the fishing industry depends on safe and untainted ground water so that they can provide safe food products to their customers.

Government regulations have a positive impact on the general population and the economy with a much more broad scale in the area of management practices. Years ago, employees were often mistreated and abused by their employers because there were no regulations in place to prevent it from occurring. As governmental agencies began to get involved and set up rules and boundaries the worker began to be treated with more respect, thereby boosting his or her morale which in turn provided a better product line.

In addition to the regulations with regard to how employees were treated, many government regulations began to appear with regard to consumer treatment. One example of such a regulation can be seen in the vehicle lemon laws. The law protects both the consumer and the dealer as it strives to create an open and fair playing field with regard to vehicle purchase. Before the lemon law was written and put into effect, many consumers were purchasing vehicles that were not drivable shortly after the purchase.

Today, the lemon law requires certain disclosures and for the dealer to pay for repairs within a certain amount of time on new car purchases. What this particular regulation did was ultimately force car manufacturers to be sure they were producing the best product possible. If they produced substandard products the dealers would refuse to carry them on the lots and the consumer would refuse to purchase them.

It would become too costly for the dealer to have to constantly provide repairs and for the consumer to miss work or other obligations because the car was in the shop. So the government regulation actually helped the economy and the general population by forcing manufacturers to improve the products that they were rolling off the assembly line. A recent study conducted in Ireland indicated that businesses believe government regulations help them boost their sales by regulating the competitive nature of business.

In America, the same positive impact can be seen in the business world. If one wants to examine the positive impact that government regulations can have on business, one only need to look at the monopoly laws. Monopoly laws are designed to protect the consumer from only having one source to go to for supplies, wants and needs. The laws prevent any one company from becoming the only choice a consumer has because the company engineered it to happen.

One recent example of a monopoly law issue was the suit against Microsoft. Microsoft became so large and so powerful that it was able to contract deals so that any time a consumer purchased a computer, the computer would automatically have Microsoft operating systems on it. The company was so powerful that it effectively squeezed any competitors completely out of the market. Microsoft and founder Bill Gates were sued for the practice and lost.

The laws prohibiting monopoly practices help to protect the consumer through protecting businesses from being bullied by financial giants in the industry. Anti-trust laws are also in place to protect not only the businesses but also the consumer. Anti-trust laws regulate how businesses compete as well. For example, a very large retail corporation such as Wal-Mart has the obvious financial ability to sell a product line for less than it costs the company to attain for a specified period of time.

This theoretically can be done until the competitors have to pull out of the market because they cannot afford to dropt he prices that low. As soon as the competition drops out then Wal-Mart can hike the price as high as it wants to and the consumer has little choice but to pay the price for the product. The anti-trust laws are set up so that it has to be proven that the intent for price fixing was for the purpose of shutting out the competition.

If this can be proven the offending party can be ordered to pay large fines. This protects the consumer and helps the economy by maintaining a field open and ripe for competition. This allows the consumer to have choices about where to purchase products or services and it allows the economy to flow and be flexible because the product market is not in the hands of a few providers.

While many American business owners and consumers complain that government regulations are hurting the American Dream, the fact is without those regulations a few large businesses would be able to control the entire consumer base and the consumer would be at the mercy of their decisions. In addition the environment would be more polluted than ever before which in turn would have a negative impact on the food supply and other consumer needs. Government regulations are a necessary evil.

They protect the consumer, they protect the environment and they help maintain a stable economy. Government Regulations are Harming the Economy by Hurting Business Businesses around the world have a tough road to navigate. They must provide a product or service that consumers are interested in purchasing, they must do it at a cost that consumers are willing to pay and they must be able to pay their overheard costs and have a profit left over.

It is an ever changing challenge that ends up driving the majority of businesses to put up a closed sign within the first five years. One of the problems businesses encounter is the long list of government regulations that they must be sure they comply with. Government regulations are in place to protect the consumer, the environment, the general population and in theory the businesses however, there are so many regulations that it is difficult to keep up with them.

In addition many government regulations are so restrictive that they create an impossible situation for businesses to comply with and still operate. Because of the extreme nature and sheer number of government regulations with regard to business the regulations are actually setting the economy up for failure. As the world continues to globalize and businesses begin to build their international consumer base government regulations around the world now have an impact on worldwide consumers. In Britain for example government regulations have become the top problem for small companies.

Government regulations and the total tax burden are now the top two problems facing Britain's small firms, according to the latest NatWest/SERTeam Quarterly Survey of Small Businesses. Whilst the impact of government regulations has been the number one problem for 18 months, the tax burden has now jumped into second place for the first time in 3 years." In the U.S., government regulations are a constant threat to business ability to operate as well. One example can be found in the nursing home industry.

While government regulations to protect the senior residents of nursing homes are aimed at a good cause, providing them with a good life, the number of regulations now in place have placed a cost prohibitive burden on the homes, which in turn has driven the price of residency so high that a large segment of the American population cannot afford to reside in a home. Instead they are being left in family homes, alone while family members work to pay the bills.

One of the problems with government regulations and business is that often times the regulation applies across the board with little regard to the size of the business or the size of the population that the business serves. To implement a regulation to businesses across an entire geographic area can harm the business in the small town.

Why should the same regulation apply to a business in a town of 330 as a business in a town of 1.5 million residents? To comply with certain government regulations businesses in small towns are often left with no choice but to close the doors. Existing regulations already put a huge burden on the U.S. economy, more than $600 billion per year, according to detailed studies by economist Thomas Hopkins of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Former chief White House economic advisor, Professor Murray Weidenbaum of Washington University, St.

Louis, calculates that about a quarter of this sum relates specifically to the environment. These astronomical costs do not show up in the federal budget or in income taxes, but are a direct expense on business -- which of course must pass it along to the consumer in the form of higher prices for everything he buys: food, housing, transportation, and all other goods. The average annual "environmental tax" on every American household now exceeds $1,500 and is growing rapidly." Government regulations destroy more jobs than they create.

For many small factories or other businesses the cost of compliance with the many government regulations is so cost prohibitive that they have to cut back on labor. Through lay offs or terminations the businesses are not able to produce the volume of products or services that they were in the past which can lead to further lay offs.

When a company has to terminate employees to reduce the cost of overhead due to government mandates and regulations it also reduces the amount of spend able income the families of those employees have at their disposable. This in turn has a negative impact on the overall economy. The burden of governmental and particularly environmental regulation is particularly hard on small businesses. As their costs rise and they try to pass them along, competition from giant firms forces them to close down.

Miners, factory workers, and other productive employees lose their jobs. But I suppose we can always retrain them -- to become environmental lawyers." Large firms are not as directly impacted by the cost of government regulations however they often make up that cost by passing the cost onto the consumer by way of higher prices, fewer services or a combination of both.

In addition the government regulations often prevent new products or services from being introduced to the market, which in turn has an overall negative impact on the economy as the market has a reduced sense of competition leaving the current.