I’m not so sure that equating more laws produced with “greater productivity” is necessarily the right idea.
VerifiedReports 12 minutes ago [-]
Definitely not. The article does go on to acknowledge this:
"The result of this volume bias in the system is an onslaught of low-quality legislation. Compliance is often impossible. A BusinessEurope analysis cited by the Draghi report looked at just 13 pieces of EU legislation and found 169 cases where different laws impose requirements on the same issue. In almost a third of these overlaps, the detailed requirements were different, and in about one in ten they were outright contradictory."
Whenever I hear a politician patting himself on the back for how many pieces of legislation he got passed, I cringe at the thought of all the junk in it.
amadeuspagel 1 hours ago [-]
> The Commission initiates legislation, but it has no reason to be reticent. It cannot make policy by announcing new spending commitments and investments, as the budget is tiny, around one percent of GDP, and what little money it has is mostly earmarked for agriculture (one-third) and regional aid (one-third). In Brussels, policy equals legislation. Unlike national civil servants and politicians, civil servants and politicians who work in Brussels have one main path to build a career: passing legislation.
This is also relevant in debt-brake discussions. Many who want a smaller government support limits on debts, but a smaller budget leaves passing laws as the only way for politicians to assert themselves. Often, spending money is a less harmful way for a politician to get a headline then passing a law.
appreciatorBus 1 hours ago [-]
In the same way that we budge the quantity of dollars we can spend, we should probably budget the quantity of laws we can create, and laws that can exist at any given time.
dmix 48 minutes ago [-]
Mandatory expiry dates or renewal cycles. You can bypass the expiry/renewal process with a large majority.
solace_silence 39 minutes ago [-]
Sounds like a lobbyist dream.
fragmede 2 minutes ago [-]
Let's not create a better system that would help everybody because some people might have jobs under that system!
jltsiren 34 minutes ago [-]
The budget is ultimately limited by the government's ability to extract value. There are no similar limits to the quantity of laws and regulations that can be in effect at the same time. Legislators can of course impose an arbitrary limit, but they can just as easily increase the limit or repeal it, if they don't like it.
CGMthrowaway 16 minutes ago [-]
The number of laws is limited by several factors, among them:
The ability of the governed to remember and attend to them all
The resources of the government available to explain, interpret and enforce compliance
The willingness of the governed to obey them without a gun being brought out
The willingness and ability of the government to bring out a gun to enforce them
For instance, when the rule of avoidance in late imperial China created a 5x increase in rate of new regulations, the result was up to 30% decrease in tax collections and a counterintuitive increase in the power and influence of local clerks, gentry and militias, laying the groundwork supportive of the eventual mutiny against and collapse of Qing rule
51 minutes ago [-]
brusselslarp 20 minutes ago [-]
how else would they justify their abundant pay and perks
plus Brussels is a boring place, not much else to do other than LARPing as law makers
m00dy 40 minutes ago [-]
leave europe before it is too late.
black_13 34 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
hammock 44 minutes ago [-]
The more laws we have the more democracy we have! We need more! Look at all the problems around us
"The result of this volume bias in the system is an onslaught of low-quality legislation. Compliance is often impossible. A BusinessEurope analysis cited by the Draghi report looked at just 13 pieces of EU legislation and found 169 cases where different laws impose requirements on the same issue. In almost a third of these overlaps, the detailed requirements were different, and in about one in ten they were outright contradictory."
Whenever I hear a politician patting himself on the back for how many pieces of legislation he got passed, I cringe at the thought of all the junk in it.
This is also relevant in debt-brake discussions. Many who want a smaller government support limits on debts, but a smaller budget leaves passing laws as the only way for politicians to assert themselves. Often, spending money is a less harmful way for a politician to get a headline then passing a law.
plus Brussels is a boring place, not much else to do other than LARPing as law makers