Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Zookeepers

If a zookeeper felt the cages and walls and glass walls of the zoo was too confining and decided to smash the glass and walls and cut the bars of the cages, in effect, de-regulating his zoo, would he be a good zookeeper?

Of course, many of his customers would get killed and many of his charges, the animals, would suffer the same fate.

Funny how so many of the captains of industry rail against the walls until they are removed, only to find ashes and dust in the very near future. Like Keating, Lehman, AIG, Freddie and Fannie.

Regulations are not just to protect the consumer, but to protect the regulated as well.

Truck drivers, of which I are one, are regulated. Most get paid by the mile, some get paid a percentage of the load, and even fewer get paid by the hour. We are regulated by hour of service and we must, by federal law, keep logbooks to conform to the law.

In effect, the Federal Government, in a very real sense, limits the income of truck drivers by limiting the amount of miles/hours one can drive in a day/week. What business does the Gubmint have limiting the money I earn?

It may become unpleasant if a whole herd of 80,000 lbs trucks came barreling through your neighborhood, the drivers coked to the gills on their third west-coast turnaround since the last time they visited a pillow.

We live in this zoo. Republican toolboxes contain torches and sledgehammers and hacksaws and "fundamentally" believe Americans are strong enough to walk through this meatgrinder.

Or, you can just vote for Democrats.

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