More on the Blob

As a follow up to yesterday’s post. Upon consideration you can characterize the differences between Tyler Cowen and I as a dispute over which margins The Blob would adjust if cut down to size.

Cowen believes that the important margin would be the amount of “customer service.” That is, fewer regulators means fewer people to help guide the regulated through the regulatory labyrinth.

I believe that there would be other margins. Fewer rules, or less complicated ones–that is, a less gnarly labyrinth. And crucially, fewer regulators to obstruct and harass (rather than facilitate) companies endeavoring to do wealth-enhancing things.

Along these lines, the recent book by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch–Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law–comes down firmly on the obstruct/harass side of the argument:

In one such story, an agent from the U.S. Department of Agriculture informed a young magician, Marty Hahne, that he needed a license for using his rabbit in the act he had just performed at a local library. Hahne subsequently learned he also needed an evacuation plan for the animal in case of a hurricane or some other disaster. This requirement originated in a federal statute, the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates the treatment of dogs, cats, rabbits, and other animals for research, teaching, testing, and exhibition. Congressional lawmakers called on the USDA to apply the law to such venues as “carnivals, circuses, and zoos.” USDA regulators interpreted those exhibitions to include magic shows.

There are other stories.

Of course, argument by anecdote (or parable) has its problems, most notably how representative the anecdotes/parables are. But the kinds of things Gorsuch describes cast serious doubt on the “we’re from the government and here to help you” theory, and support the alternative view that the real story is “we’re from the government and here to make your life miserable.”

In which case, cutting down the number of those with power to make you miserable has to be a good thing, even if from time to time they actually do help you.