Photo courtesy psd/flickr.com
James Surowiecki’s recent New Yorker article, “The Regulation Crisis,” got me thinking that it’s past time we reframed the role that regulators play in our society. Far from being government bureaucrats or straight-edge sissies who merely interfere with the oh-so-American enterprise of making money, regulators are the protectors of our coasts, our markets, our foods, and our health. At least that’s what they’re supposed to be.
But, we need only consider the oil-covered birds in the gulf, the desolated marshes, and the fishermen out of work for weeks, months and even years, to know that the regulators let us down.
As has been widely chronicled, rather than performing their oversight duties with ethical rigor, the regulators at MMS (the department responsible for oversight of BP’s Deep Horizon well) were allegedly hotboxing and getting intimate with oil industry execs.
Not good.
To err is human, as they say, but it seems obvious that the recent rash of catastrophic regulatory failure cannot merely be explained as the fault of a few bad apples. It’s systemic. Here’s what Surowiecki says: “These failures weren’t accidents. They were the all too predictable result of the deregulationary fervor that has gripped Washington in recent years.” He goes on to make the point that because regulation is now viewed as unnecessary and harmful, agencies are led by people “skeptical of their own duties.”
Ironically, even as these agencies continue to be marginalized, the public feels a false sense of security, assuming that they are protected. Not so.
Making regulation sexy
When I think of “sexy” professions, regulators seem nestled snugly between port-a-potty cleaners and roadkill removers. Compare this stereotype to other public servants like doctors, nurses, firemen, police officers and soldiers. Teachers are called noble. District attorneys and public defenders are considered crusaders for justice.
What about the humble regulators? They get called bureaucrats and busybodies. Rather than writing new regulations, perhaps we should start with changing the way we think and talk about regulations and the men and women who bear the burden of enforcing them.
Beyond busybody: lifeguards wanted
A few years ago, as a tip of the hat to his fiscal management, the Economist magazine ran a cover photo of then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s head superimposed over the body of a lifeguard running on the beach. This is exactly the sort of makeover that regulators need. After all, regulators are the front-line defenders who ensure that our food is clean, our pharmaceuticals are safe and that companies can’t pollute our land and waters.
We’ve seen what has happened when we disempower and dismiss regulators. Moving forward, we should acknowledge that mistakes will always be a possibility but, nevertheless, we must hold ourselves and regulators to the highest possible standards. Moreover, we must afford effective regulators the honor and prestige that comes along with the heavy responsibility of protecting our health and homeland.
Nick Voges is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net’s Zeitgeist. E-mail him at nick@nmpolitics.net.