Legislative Overkill

Laws are great when they do stuff like keep us safe and protect our personal property. But as with sun exposure or Milk Duds, too much of a good thing can end up being…not so good.

Take, for instance, the law in Grand Haven, Michigan that makes it illegal to throw an abandoned hoop skirt into the street—what’s that about? We’re all about preventing littering, but what did hoop skirts in particular ever do to anybody, other than make them look fabulous?

Anyway, it’s no secret that some laws are just plain broken. Hi, immigration. Do we even know what the laws are? So what do legislators tend to do when faced with a broken law? That’s right: they fix it by making another law. Sometimes this works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. But when we get a big old pile of laws stacked on top of each other in an effort to fix problems with their previous iterations, we call it “legislative overkill,” and it tends to get a big thumbs-down from those in the business community.

Regulation in general, while sometimes very necessary, tends to hit businesses in the pocketbook. Think about it: more regulations = more fees, more red tape, more forms to fill out, more reporting requirements, more restrictions, etc. It gets expensive. And complicated. And time-consuming. So when we have layer upon layer of laws and regulations, many investors and business owners claim that lawmakers are trying to legislate their business to death. RIP LLC.