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FlyingDad's avatar

Great read and spot on. As a professional pilot, I can imagine the incredible opportunities available if we could return to 1950’s regulations. The cost of aircraft would be a third of what it is now. The innovation in energy production would bring down fuel costs and operating costs for everyone. Growth would be explosive. I know the pessimists out there would point out the safety of aircraft certification standards and the increased safety of air traffic management and control, but what would free market technologies look like as an alternative? Wouldn’t we have technology that allowed us to see other aircraft through the clouds and fog (think FLIR and our latest ADS-B) without the aid of a huge bureaucratic federal control system? For those that think Federal control is so necessary, let’s think about the FDA that receives 60% of it funding from fees from the very pharmaceutical companies that it’s supposed to regulate. We’ve seen the end result in the latest debacle with the COVID vaccines that were approved and said to be “safe and effective” and have proven to be almost the polar opposite. As far as FAA aircraft certification standards, look no further than the FAA’s Boeing 737 MAX debacle. The FAA basically deferred all decisions to the manufacturer. I believe the natural progression from government guidance to outright corruption with large corporations, has nullified most government institutions to the point of not just ineffectiveness but now causing real harm to the people it was originally supposed to protect.

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Kevin Beck's avatar

I would like to clarify the term, "regulation." As originally defined, it would mean, "to make regular." But the word was hijacked by, among others, a Supreme Court that decided that the "proper" use of the term from the United States Constitution should suddenly mean that Congress gets to determine what "regular is, and any rule to obtain that result was suddenly the act of making something regular.

I would proper that we refer to anything that these government types call a "regulation" is really a "restriction." These rules restrict us from acting regularly and change our behavior adopt to these new restrictions, which require us to lose time by interpreting what we are supposed to do to act regular, or require us to acknowledge compliance by filling in details on a government form.

I may be picking at nits as I continue my hunt for the snark, but I can't allow myself to play the rules by the game the government creates around me. And as for what I mean by "snark": You may have to read your Lewis Carroll.

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