Every time I hear the phrase "job-killing regulation", all I see is a whiny little pimp that doesn't have the balls to run a business.
As an architect, I'd imagine my tendency is to think and feel the same way…..if what I was doing was "feeling" nothing (for anyone but myself) and subsequently "thinking" very little.
Oh! How I would love to do away with planning and zoning regulations, so I can design and build anything I want! The price of "freedom" is dealing with whatever people want to build on their private property. The fact that you see it and pass it everyday is of no importance to me. It kills jobs for you to think that way.
And that's just one set of regulations.
Perhaps we should take a hard glance at the building, mechanical, and plumbing codes. These are thousands of pages (written by bureaucrats, of course!) dedicated to saving lives in an earthquake, or preventing an explosion, or keeping scalding water off children.
But what it does for me is prevent me from hiring more people. Clients pay us to design and execute plans. They don't pay us to read pages of safety codes. These codes are committed to memory so we do our job correctly. But we will never get an extra dime for "code research". The upside is? You guessed it: job-killing, job-killing, job-killing.
Please don't get me started on the Americans with Disabilities Act. I'd be as wealthy as a king (and probably using that cash to hire dozens of people…you know I would) if only I didn't have to spend all this time figuring out how to make my buildings accessible. ACCESSIBLE?! Is that a subject that is so important that some person has to sit home unemployed? I mean, think of my poor commercial clients who have to pay for these bathrooms that are large enough to spin a wheelchair in circles. That is a luxury the rich can afford, but it's killing jobs for the rest of us. Jobs, jobs, jobs, people. What a waste of human capital!….all in the service of keeping a few sight-restricted persons from smacking their head on a steel strut. It's not MY fault they can't see. I'm sure they deal with this all the time.
Have you heard all the hyperbole over "saving energy" and making buildings "more green"? These things are now being codified into law. People tell me "clean energy" is a job-creating industry that could generate long-term benefits for our country in multiple sectors, but I don't know that's true and I really don't care. It gives me a headache and I know if I didn't have this headache I'd be scanning the college graduate listings looking for more talent to hire.
So, yeah, I guess if some hard-working, honest, patriotic politician would finally give me 'hope' and start whacking away at these pesky rules and regulations then yeah, I'll vote for them twice if possible….because jobs matter. And this is the United States of America.
It's about FREEDOM.
And as you know, in this country, we care about nothing else.
