Management

Do this. Comply with that. Display these posters. Provide this insurance for workers. Provide that insurance. Make sure these 200 forms are filled out every year…

Ah yes, our friends in Washington work very hard to punish corporations and protect workers. And some of this protection is good. But such protection is a double-edged sword.

Consider the plight of a group of workers who want to tell their boss “where to go” and start their own business. The workers understand the job to be done, and they have the savings to buy the tools they need. Alas for them, they will soon learn the invisible, non-productive, services that were provided by the tie-wearers whom they despised. They will learn of a half dozen or so tax agencies they will have to deal with. They will have to contact a dozen or so regulatory agencies and have to learn their edicts. They will either pay extra taxes or learn how to set up complicated benefit plans. They will learn of the services provided by the “suits.”

Learn this rule:

For every regulation with which employers have to comply, multiple potential employers opt to stay out of business, or, at least, not hire employees.

Excess regulation creates management opportunities by squeezing out the self-employed (if we were all self-employed, there would be no “exploitation”). Excess regulation reduces the number of employers to shop from for those who are employees.

The excessively regulatory state is not so much a protection of the working class from the owners of businesses, but a “hump” that makes it harder to go into business. This hump provides protection from competition for those who have successfully made it.

Lower the hump and more people will successfully start their own businesses, which will provide more competition for those who already have their own businesses. Note that employers will always be with us, since employers do provide useful services as they skim off income in the interaction between worker and customer. But with an easier path to starting a business, employers will have more competition for these services – excessive payment to management will result in laborers going elsewhere.