ABSTRACT
A direct private cost resulting from the expansion of government controls is the growing paperwork burden imposed on business firms: the expensive and time-consuming process of submitting reports, making applications, filling out questionnaires, and replying to orders and directives. A hidden cost is the reduced rate of innovation that may occur as the result of government controls. Government mandated costs of private production are assumed neither to be shifted forward to consumers nor backward to the factors of production. The operation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act provides a pertinent example of how government regulation can lose sight of the basic objective. The instances of waste and foolishness on the part of government regulators pale into insignificance when compared to the arbitrary power that can be exerted by federal regulators. People need a fundamental rethinking of the attitude that government increasingly should involve itself in what traditionally has been internal business decision making.
