Reform of government regulations is clearly needed. In undertaking regulatory reforms, two important considerations must not be neglected. First, care should be taken to avoid eliminating needed regulations. Second, we probably should not expect too much.

The Tolchins remind us in the following words that no right-minded person wants to get rid of all regulations.

Regulation is the connective tissue, the price we pay for an industrialized society. It is our major protection against the excesses of technology, whose rapid advances threaten man's genes, privacy, air, water, bloodstream, lifestyle, and virtual existence. It is a guard against the callous entrepreneur, who would have his workers breathe coal dust and cotton dust, who would send children into the mines and factories, who would offer jobs in exchange for health and safety, and leave the victims as public charges in hospitals and on welfare lines. . . . Regulations provide protection against the avarice of the marketplace, against shoddy products and unscrupulous marketing practices from Wall Street to Main Street.⁴¹

In the future we can expect some regulatory reform. But how much? The answer is not too much because reform has a weak political base. One reason for this is that the public is not excited about it. Aside from business, the ultimate beneficiaries are generally unaware of their stake in reform. Because the benefits of reform to one person are very small in relation to the costs involved in bringing it about, there is a lack of initiative by individuals, except those in business. The result is a coalition of congressional committees, bureaucrats who administer the laws, and interest groups, constituting political power that resists quick and substantial regulatory reform. There is no comparable opposing political coalition.⁴²

⁴¹ Susan J. Tolchin and Martin Tolchin, Dismantling America. The Risk to Deregulation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 22–23.

⁴² James Q. Wilson, ed., The Politics of Regulation (New York: Basic Books, 1980).