Regulating Human Greed

There has been a raging debate over regulation in America. President Trump says that it is killing jobs, many others see them as safety necessities.   
Groups with an agenda have historically proven that they can not regulate themselves.  

We've seen it in the banking and investment industries. They sold derivatives knowing they were faulty products, but they all engaged in it by simply taking their piece and pushing it further down the pipeline, until, inevitably it imploded and left the tax payers with trillions in debt for their misguided folly. 

Investors for years have had their portfolios "churned" -- sold at the end of each month or quarter so that those funds could be put into some new stock, with the broker and firm earning from the sale and the buy.   

The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to bad behavior, nor is the energy industry, both of whom chasing the bottom line over the common good for which they were entrusted.

So I balk at the idea that the "free market" cures all ills. It doesn't.   

We're at a place in America where people are now siding with deregulation because it produces jobs, money is still the driving force behind potentially catastrophic decisions.  And while deregulation may ignite short-term job growth, though that is still just theory, there are long-term effects that will affect us all, sooner or later.  

Government and they're integration with business, jobs, and the economy are -- despite the claims "this will be so easy -- a complicated matter. It requires a methodical approach. Like a game of Jenga, when you move one piece it affects others.

Hopefully more prudent minds will prevail and put the country back on stable ground, balancing the short-term gains with the long-term effects.  

As Americans, we're all very quick to take a side. We have deep-seeded emotional beliefs about issues, and we tend to seek out narrow information sound bites that support that view.    

In parting, there has been a big discussion about coal, and the repeal of environmental regulations that now allow that industry to once again dump waste into the rivers.

Aside from his attacking Trump, John Oliver did an interesting piece on coal. Watch and comment.