McGovernment

Ah, you thought this would somehow be about McDonalds, huh?  Nope.   Instead, it is about the late George McGovern.   Forget the fact that his committee in the ’70s launched the whole anti-fat scare in which he claimed caused obesity and cancer.  That was never proven and has caused a parade of other major health problems.  No, this is about George McGovern who was extremely left leaning his whole career and felt that government should do everything for the people.    The WSJ did a quick piece on him and here is the most important snippet:

McGovern was an honest, good-humored man, and one of our memories involves an op-ed he wrote for the Journal in 1992 on the perils of running a small business. After retiring from the Senate, he fulfilled a lifetime ambition to buy and operate the Stratford Inn in Connecticut. The inn failed, in part due to a recession that was more severe in New England than elsewhere, but also because of the burdens imposed by government.

“My business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc.,” he wrote.

“While I never have doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: ‘Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.'” 

Turns out that red tape was bad for business.   McGovern was the type of bureaucrat that we see now instituting quality indicators, JCAHO, EMRs, ICD-10, and on and on.  They never get how much they destroy the little business owner until it is too late.  How many solo docs are out there again?  That’s right, hardly any.