Of horses' teeth and liberty

The 'Lexington' column in The Economist says "The home of unbridled capitalism has more red tape than you think".

Many of the effects of regulation are hard to measure. But a deeper problem is that politicians often don't try very hard to weigh costs against benefits at all. After an exhaustive study of American regulations, Robert Hahn of the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, concluded that quite a lot of cost-benefit analysis is done, but it is sometimes shoddy and politicians often ignore it.

Politicians are reluctant to be seen opposing almost any rule aimed at thwarting terrorists, or to allow economists to put a price on a human life (hence all the health-care rules) or a pristine landscape. And even the worst regulation usually heaps benefits on a small group, while its costs are widely spread. The beneficiaries thus lobby hard to keep each rule, while its victims do nothing. The late Mancur Olson, an economist, predicted that interest groups will grow in number until they cause their host society to slip into economic decline.