Red Tape And Regulations

Once upon a time the threat of a nuclear war was deemed most likely to destroy the world as we know it. Although that threat still exists it doesn’t elicit the same fear as it once did.

Today we are more likely to hear how global warming is going to destroy the planet, or some form of “flu” on a rampage that will wipe out a significant percentage of the population. Each new threat has to be more shocking than the last or newspapers won’t sell.

One threat that you don’t see in the newspaper headlines is that of bureaucracy gone mad.

Red tape and regulations are as dangerous as any of the other threats to the well-being life as we know it. Economies are being destroyed. Freedoms taken. And people like you and me are driven to despair.

You are not allowed to hurt yourself or you will be prosecuted. You cannot pick up a tool around your own home without being certified to use it. You cannot dig a hole, prune a tree, or plough a field without resource consent.

Or in the case of a neighbour who wanted extend a veranda around the side of her house, she was told she would need to seal the first 10 meters of her drive and put it water storage tanks to get a building permit.  The reason given was to bring the 100 year old house up to modern specifications. All she wanted to do was to protect the side of her house from the weather.

Another 10 or 20 years of the escalating bureaucratic madness will destroy life as we know it – but that is a headline we are unlikely to see any time soon.