Imagine the disappointment of only a paltry amount of water trickling from the faucet and shower head, not to mention the multiple flushes required to empty the toilet. The dishwasher and washing machine are programmed by computers to limit the water for each appliance. Everything from refrigerators and freezers to microwave ovens and televisions are regulated. Incandescent light bulbs have been banned, and gas cooking stoves could be next.

Manufacturers and consumers have no control over these decisions. What happened to choice?

Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, put it this way: “Consumers are perfectly capable of making these decisions on their own, including consumers who want to buy extra efficient refrigerators or other appliances. What these standards do is force that choice on everyone, whether it makes sense for them or not. And we know from history that, in some cases, these standards raise the upfront cost more than you’re likely to earn back in the form of energy savings.”

By one definition, regulation is a prescription by authority to control an organization or system. The Yale Journal on Regulation defines regulation as state intervention in the private domain.
Who’s responsible for creating government regulations? The regulations could be arbitrary. For years, Congress passed laws and then delegated the authority of designing the resulting rules to federal agencies. Members of Congress often never see the unintended consequences of the laws they enact. The regulations developed might not reflect the original intent of Congress in passing the law.

Here’s one example of how regulations work, and the heavy hand of government replaces freedom of choice. “There is a strong possibility the government will instead regulate gas stoves out of existence, force manufacturers into taking gas-powered stoves or other appliances off their product lines and prevent gas companies from running lines into new construction,” said U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington state.

Regulations limit choice while burdening consumers with higher costs due to production and selling requirements. Written by Wayne Crews, “Ten Thousand Commandments” is the annual Competitive Enterprise Institute survey of the size, scope and cost of federal regulations and how they affect U.S. businesses, consumers and the economy. “Rules made by federal agencies impose a cost of government that extends well beyond what Washington taxes,” Crews said. “Federal environmental, safety and health, social and economic regulations grip the economy, making it needlessly harder and more expensive to run a household or business in this country.”

Crews’ latest analysis calculated the average American household pays $14,513 annually in hidden costs based on the $1.9 trillion cost of regulations. These regulatory costs amount to a hidden tax.

Alexandros Vacanas, chief strategy officer of the business solutions company uQualify, said regulations constitute an essential part of modern society, designed to protect the public and ensure businesses operate in a fair and ethical manner. Certain manufacturing industries inherently attract more regulation. Home appliances are heavily regulated, affecting the lives and pocketbooks of citizens.

If regulations are essential for the safety and well-being of consumers, who designates a product safe or unsafe? Gas stoves have been in use for generations. People might choose to cook with gas, electricity or wood, but consumers determine the method of producing heat for cooking. According to media reports, efforts to ban gas stoves are under way in California and Washington, with large cities across the U.S. following suit. Why is that? Could it be political ideology is the standard used to regulate household appliances consumers have used safely for years?

In “The Future of Free Enterprise: Can It Survive Government Interventionism?” Baron Edmond de Rothschild wrote: “Free enterprise is the indispensable prerequisite for personal freedom; however, the vitality of free enterprise is being threatened by government interventionism.”

The definition of tyranny is the arbitrary, cruel or unreasonable use of power or control. The arbitrary regulating or banning of products by unelected bureaucrats is tyrannical. Contrasting authoritarian governments with representative governments is distinguishing force versus freedom. Freedom is the basis for the founding of the United States. Be warned. The government exerts force in the United States today that directly affects citizens’ freedom of choice.