WHY WE NEED LESS BUREAUCRATS


© Beth Skinner

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is only one example of why the world would be better off with less bureaucrats. It is possibly one of the most misleading, costly, not to mention downright annoying, facets of our government. Thus it becomes fodder for this week's column.

Beginning in 1850 the small town of Leadville, Colorado, saw miners come and go. They left some of the lead they mined in piles on the ground. Water ran down the mountain, into the rivers, and carried some of the lead with it. Several years ago, the town of Leadville, Colorado began to see agents from the EPA come and go each summer. Yet instead of leaving piles of lead on the side of the mountain, they seem to leave piles of uh...well...never mind.

The EPA's goal was to remove several inches of topsoil from the entire town, because they insisted the town's children were becoming contaminated by all the lead running amuck through the water. The town decided to do the logical thing and had the children tested for lead. Only 5% of the children had a higher level of lead in their blood stream than what was considered normal. Approximately 90% of the children had lead levels lower than the national average. The EPA's reaction to all this logic and data was to refute it with a computer model, which used something other than actual data from the town's children. This model indicated that the level of lead in the blood of the children should be much higher than that for which the children actually tested. Of course the EPA, not being prone to logic or truth, chose to rely upon their model rather than the children's ACTUAL medical records. This means that the EPA will continue to invade the town of Leadville, every summer, for some time to come. Ken Chlouber, a state senator from Leadville, said that, "The IRS is kindergarten compared to the EPA. It doesn't matter what you say to them, they just smile and run right over you."

In 1993, the EPA claimed that they had definitive proof that second hand smoke caused cancer. As a result, many businesses banned smoking in their establishments entirely. The city of Boulder, Colorado, banned smoking in all public buildings, including privately owned businesses. Businesses were unhappy with the decision because many bars cater to people who enjoy a drink and a smoke.

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

1.   Jan 1, 1999 10:48 PM
The extent of the economics in this latest rant of an article seems to be the crudest possible reduction of something vaguely, just barely, reminiscient of some claim from public choice theory. In sh ...

-- posted by pseudoerasmus





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