PoliTalker
Diversity Makes Greatness
"The primary way that campaign contributions and lobbying may dampen economic growth is via a practice known as rent-seeking—the process of seeking income through special government favors rather than through productive economic activity. When firms and individuals engage in rent-seeking behavior, it has several negative effects on economic growth. Not only do people spend more time and money trying to get a bigger piece of the economic pie for themselves rather than trying to enlarge the pie, but the policies they seek are often wasteful, inefficient, or even harmful. If rent-seeking is a successful strategy for businesses or individuals, it can impose great harm on society by slowing or even stopping economic growth. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz explains, rent-seeking not only wastes tax dollars on unnecessary or inefficient projects—redistributing money from one part of society to the rent-seekers—but it is a “centripetal force” that hollows out the economy because “the rewards of rent seeking become so outsize that more and more energy is directed toward it, at the expense of everything else.”"
Center for American Progress
One would think that the people who clean teeth could simply set up a shop and provide the service they are properly trained to do. That would allow for American Entrepreneurship at it's finest. The free market at work. Since all that would be needed would be a strip mall space and a few chairs, overhead could be quite low. No, they are not going to be practicing dentistry, just cleaning teeth. These shops could be properly inspected and regulated and very convenient, perhaps as proliferous and competitive as vape shops and hair/nails salons.
But no. We don't see that. Dental hygienists work for a dentist, and since a dentist has such a high overhead to run an office, the fee to get teeth cleaned becomes pretty high. Since not all Americans have dental coverage which might pay for this, the high cost of going to the dentist causes many Americans to simply forego this important health habit. I once asked my hygienist who was facing an unwanted layoff because she was getting old and about to be age-discriminated out of work, why she didn't consider just opening up a teeth-cleaning shop? She explained that she wasn't allowed to do that under the law. She said it would be considered 'practicing medicine without a license.'
I said you've got to be kidding. You're cleaning teeth, not practicing medicine. Nope. She was dead serious. It seems the dentists have gotten organized and used some of the big money they charge customers to create bogus definitions under the law in order to prevent more affordable competition. The professional organizations they join have gathered lots of big money and lobbied for stringent regulations that protect their market and their high prices, not consumers.
And ya know what the real result of that is?
A lot of people just don't go to the dentist.
What a stupid greedy idea.
"Moreover, studies find that businesses with the most to gain from favorable public policy engage in the most political activity."
"The major economic concerns of rent-seeking can be categorized into three types of inefficiencies:
1. Resources are wasted engaging in rent-seeking.
2. Policies sought by rent-seeking result in an inefficient use of resources.
3. Rent-seeking policies may prove so destructive that they cause resources to sit idle."
Check all three boxes in the case of this absurd teeth-cleaning regulation. The next time I visited my dentist, that hygienist was replaced with a very young recruit, right out of school who was probably paid less than the experienced person who was no longer there.
"Economic growth depends upon an efficient use of resources. As this brief has outlined, however, rent-seeking is inherently inefficient because it diverts resources from potentially more-productive activities and thus imposes significant economic costs."
We need to put an end to dumb stuff like that. Many thought Trump was the man to do this. Nope. He's a conman. He's in the bag for the rich and greedy power junkies. He's one of THEM.
There are parts of our economy that do need to be opened up to a more free market. That's my liberal view.
"Even worse, the economic costs of rent-seeking are likely to grow in the future. With the barriers that limit money in politics falling in the courts, it should be expected that even more money will be directed toward rent-seeking activities in the future."
Center for American Progress
One would think that the people who clean teeth could simply set up a shop and provide the service they are properly trained to do. That would allow for American Entrepreneurship at it's finest. The free market at work. Since all that would be needed would be a strip mall space and a few chairs, overhead could be quite low. No, they are not going to be practicing dentistry, just cleaning teeth. These shops could be properly inspected and regulated and very convenient, perhaps as proliferous and competitive as vape shops and hair/nails salons.
But no. We don't see that. Dental hygienists work for a dentist, and since a dentist has such a high overhead to run an office, the fee to get teeth cleaned becomes pretty high. Since not all Americans have dental coverage which might pay for this, the high cost of going to the dentist causes many Americans to simply forego this important health habit. I once asked my hygienist who was facing an unwanted layoff because she was getting old and about to be age-discriminated out of work, why she didn't consider just opening up a teeth-cleaning shop? She explained that she wasn't allowed to do that under the law. She said it would be considered 'practicing medicine without a license.'
I said you've got to be kidding. You're cleaning teeth, not practicing medicine. Nope. She was dead serious. It seems the dentists have gotten organized and used some of the big money they charge customers to create bogus definitions under the law in order to prevent more affordable competition. The professional organizations they join have gathered lots of big money and lobbied for stringent regulations that protect their market and their high prices, not consumers.
And ya know what the real result of that is?
A lot of people just don't go to the dentist.
What a stupid greedy idea.
"Moreover, studies find that businesses with the most to gain from favorable public policy engage in the most political activity."
"The major economic concerns of rent-seeking can be categorized into three types of inefficiencies:
1. Resources are wasted engaging in rent-seeking.
2. Policies sought by rent-seeking result in an inefficient use of resources.
3. Rent-seeking policies may prove so destructive that they cause resources to sit idle."
Check all three boxes in the case of this absurd teeth-cleaning regulation. The next time I visited my dentist, that hygienist was replaced with a very young recruit, right out of school who was probably paid less than the experienced person who was no longer there.
"Economic growth depends upon an efficient use of resources. As this brief has outlined, however, rent-seeking is inherently inefficient because it diverts resources from potentially more-productive activities and thus imposes significant economic costs."
We need to put an end to dumb stuff like that. Many thought Trump was the man to do this. Nope. He's a conman. He's in the bag for the rich and greedy power junkies. He's one of THEM.
There are parts of our economy that do need to be opened up to a more free market. That's my liberal view.
"Even worse, the economic costs of rent-seeking are likely to grow in the future. With the barriers that limit money in politics falling in the courts, it should be expected that even more money will be directed toward rent-seeking activities in the future."
