Commentary
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in interviews never fails to bring up the problem of regulatory capture. He calls this merger of enterprise and government a kind of corporatism. That’s the older word for the ideology later called fascism. It is the correct label. He is to be commended for raising the problem, which is a massive drag on U.S. productivity, and cries out for a solution.
Let’s consider some examples.
I have a friend who owns a small grocery with a butcher shop. They insist on selling grass-fed meat, which they get from Texas. It is then sent to Vermont for processing and sent yet again to Connecticut for sales. For retail sales, it is only possible to use a processing plant approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Such facilities are only a fraction of the services on the market. If you don’t use them, you cannot sell your meat via retail. Maybe you can sell direct to the consumer. In some states, however, you can’t sell it at all….