EPA

From iGeek
Seal of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.svg
After the States cleaned up, the EPA was created to take credit. Then screw things up.
After most of the local pollution problems had been fixed by state and local governments, the fed got involved and created the EPA to give their "oversight". And of course that increased the stupidity and politicization of the environment. They helped in a few places, hurt in many others, did symbolic do-nothingism. Empowering government empowers corruption and waste.
ℹ️ Info          
~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2018-04-28 
🗒️ Note:
Government - I'm not someone who thinks the government is all bad, nor is it all good. Controlling something through government replaces a commerce based process (free market) and people's ability to vote with their wallet, with a political process where the people get less control and more bureaucracy. But the help is seen, the harm is unseed, so many think of it as a net win.
Left Right
The EPA is this great and noble institution that protects our environment, if it wasn't for them, we'd live in squalor and pollution. Most of the cleanup work had been done by the states long before 1970 and the creation of the EPA. In fact, the rate of cleanup slowed after the EPA was created. Once the fed was doing it, most of the states and municipalities felt, "I gave at the office".

History[edit | edit source]

Pointing out that most of the clean-ups happened at the state level before we had an EPA, and many of the EPA failures may be true, but they will get you disinvited from many granola munchers parties in the People's Republic of Hollywood (or California). But heck, I care about the facts and how to really help the environment, more than watermelon agenda of using the environment as an excuse to create socialism. Not because I hate clean air or water, I think both are great. I just think that people need to understand that without a bureaucratic federal monstrosity, we'd still have state and local improvements (maybe more), with far less cost. Most companies don't clean up because of fear of the EPA, but fear of their customers or legal liability if they get caught.

Here's a few articles related to the EPA: EPA • [6 items]

2019.03.20 FOIA Requests
Brent Scher at Free Beacon Compared FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to the EPA to see how many times media outlets fact-checked or investigated Obama versus Trump. The results showed obvious bias (aka FakeNews / Agenda Journalism).
Bundy Extremists
Bundy Extremists.jpeg
There were two Bundy stand-offs, one in 2014, and one in 2016, over the same issue. There were ranchers tired of Clinton era encroachments, and Obama era hard-nosed enforcement that seized their land by the Federal Government, or new restrictions on everything: grazing, usage, logging, and so on that was ruining these people's livelihoods for politics.
Earth Day
Earth Day.png
Earth Day was a fake Holiday invented to support the far left, Marxist, anti-Humanity (Population Bomb Phobia) movement. The early message wasn't resonated so they moved to more green and less soylent green. The founders were kooks and criminals, the cause would hurt humanity, but if you sell anything with peace and love, the rubes and sheep will follow.
Secondhand Smoke
The left's war on liberty (and the battle against smokers) wasn't working fast enough (despite exaggerations and fear mongering), so they magnified the Junk Science (exaggerations) on smoking to include "second hand smoke". Which also gets debunked, but takes years or decades, while the lies have immediate effect.
Suffocating Liberty - the cost of red tape
SuffocatingLiberty.png
Each new tax, law or regulation, comes with costs (compliance, non-compliance, enforcement and punishment). We have 174,545 pages of regulations, 73,954 pages in our tax code, 23,000 page in our federal legal code, double that for statutes, 300,000 criminal punishments from administrative agencies. Then add in the state+local laws, regulations and taxes on top.
Volkswagen emissions scandal
Emissions.jpg
The first episode of Dirty Money was fascinating interviews with how the government stumbled on the truth after 7 years. But it doesn't explain the important stuff: why VW did this.

Conclusion[edit | edit source]

The EPA's been a boondoggle, but mere math, logic, economics, history, will never convince anyone that wants to believe otherwise. The same way some people think the TSA keeps them safe. It might keep them slightly safer than nothing, but far less safe than a more reasonable/competently designed alternative.

  • I'm not someone who thinks the government is all bad or is all good. Nor is the EPA.
  • Controlling something through government is just a political process that increases bureaucracy: a series of rules, processes, hierarchies that slow down progress (red-tape), but increase potential accountability and order.
  • Good or bad, it is a balance between the needs of the problem and cost of the solution: did you get the implementation right?
  • If it could be done with industry cooperative and/or private licensing organizations, at a small fraction the size, with more accountability. Wouldn't that be better?
  • If someone can't ask these questions sincerely, then they're not up for a discussion on public policy, and are incapable of understanding how to avoid the moral hazard in the future.

So I point out the abuses/problems, to understand what we've been lied to about, and what we might want to watch for in the future -- and to think about those real economic and societal balances. How we can make real progress towards something more beneficial to society, instead of just leftist "progress" (progressive) just meaning bigger government with less individual liberty and less government accountability.

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🔗 More

Organizations
Organizations that I felt the need to comment on (more often on the negs than the positives). But there's good/bad in all.

Government
This is looking at Government from an American, Libertarian, and idealistic PoV, that many foreigners will not understand.

The Left Lies
When the truth disagrees with your agenda, you can grow (change) or lie. The left usually chooses the latter.

Alt-Liberty
Two different Americas: one that's striving for more liberty, and another that's striving for less.


🔗 Links

Tags: Organizations  Government  Left Lies  Alt-Liberty


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