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Bill: Scale-Back of Health Regulations
Details
Submitted by[?]: Front for State Prosperity
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: May 2126
Description[?]:
First off, the food processor who's products make people sick is damaging their own market. Few manufacturers would willingly act in ways that would diminish their potential market, and that's not even counting the bad publicity that comes from shoddy products. Furthermore, the wise producer will take every effort to ensure that their product is as healthy as possible so that they can then advertise far and wide the health benefit of using their product over their less healthy competitor. Secondly, government regulations reduce economic flexibility, for they make it harder for small businesses to operate. Large, current businesses can comply easily but small ones, startups, will not have access to the required capital nor will they have the credentials to apply for loans. This reduces competition in the market. Reduced competition means that the economy will recover slowly from bad periods and will grow less during good ones. Reduced competition also means less need to innovate, which means that less money will be spent on research and efficiency. This directly contributes to less healthy food products as companies have less motivation to aspire to higher levels of performance. Lastly, regulations in this area would contribute to two negative societal indicators. They would encourage consumer apathy and corporate distrust. First off, consumers who trusted the government to ensure their health would pay less attention to the products that they were consuming. This is a further detriment to innovation as companies would know this and encourage this, to prevent healthier products from intruding on their market share and to save themselves the costs of improving. Secondly, companies who distrusted the government would convey that distrust through their influence, to the populace. This would contribute to voter apathy and possibly even create feelings of disenfranchisement. Perhaps an even worse idea, companies who distrusted the government would seek to control it and use it, since they would be operating under the belief that it wouldn't act in good faith on it's own. There are numerous potential results that this might engender. I will leave the speculating to my fellows in the legislature. In closing, regulations in this area are detrimental to the economy and the common weal, and the Pragmatic Capitalist Party is establishing itself to the belief that these particular regulations should be rolled back. However, in the spirit of encouraging research and operating under the belief that an independent research body could more equitably distribute findings, the government shall hereby establish an independent research group which will examine ways in which food safety can be improved. The findings of said research group will be freely accessible to all consumers and corporations. Food processing corporations who research further in these areas shall not be required to share their findings with the government research body, however, those who do shall be granted a tax break of 1% of their income from that year. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Food safety policy.
Old value:: The government introduces, and actively enforces, food standards provisions.
Current: The government introduces, and actively enforces, food standards provisions.
Proposed: The government recommends food safety standards, but they are not enforced upon businesses.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
Date | 01:22:37, October 14, 2005 CET | From | Front for State Prosperity | To | Debating the Scale-Back of Health Regulations |
Message | I would like to request further input on the details of the tax break to be offered to encourage the sharing of research. |
Date | 03:50:00, October 14, 2005 CET | From | Commonwealth Workers Army | To | Debating the Scale-Back of Health Regulations |
Message | Once again, the AAP will have to oppose legislation that seeks to make a small increase in profit margins 'worth' more than Likatonian lives. |
Date | 05:47:15, October 14, 2005 CET | From | Front for State Prosperity | To | Debating the Scale-Back of Health Regulations |
Message | Eh? If you'd read the legislation, this is actually a move to improve the lives of the citizenry. I submitted it because it's what I believe would help them best. I don't give a damn about profit margins. Actually, and in case you haven't noticed, the regulations help profit margins. Without competition, profits are whatever you set your prices at. Improving competition will force companies to serve Likatonia better. |
Date | 05:48:00, October 14, 2005 CET | From | Front for State Prosperity | To | Debating the Scale-Back of Health Regulations |
Message | (Note: Err, correction, I do care about profit margins, just not here.) |
Date | 14:28:35, October 14, 2005 CET | From | AM Radical Libertarian Party | To | Debating the Scale-Back of Health Regulations |
Message | The RLP would like to thank the PCC for a well thought out piece of legislation, and offer their total support. |
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Voting
Vote | Seats | |||
yes | Total Seats: 161 | |||
no | Total Seats: 166 | |||
abstain | Total Seats: 173 |
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Random quote: "Capitalism demands the best of every man- his rationality- and rewards him accordingly. It leaves every man free to choose the work he likes, to specialize in it, to trade his product for the products of others, and to go as far on the road of achievement as his ability and ambition will carry him." - Ayn Rand |