November 23, 1999

by Peter J.M. Orvetti

Repetitive Regulation Injuries
Strike Three
I DARE You

Repetitive Regulation Injuries

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration wants new workplace rules that would create standards for the millions of Americans who work at computers, on assembly lines or at other jobs where repetitive stress injuries are a risk, AP reports. Business leaders tend to oppose the standards, arguing that there should be no new rules issued until there is scientific proof that workplace problems cause the injuries. OSHA wants to require employers to adopt ergonomic programs to minimize workplace hazards--even if only a small fraction of workers have suffered such injuries.

"Congress should shut down the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or, barring that, at least reduce OSHA's enforcement budget, further exempt from inspections companies with strong safety programs and reduce fines for firms making legitimate efforts to correct health and safety problems, and repeal OSHA's 'general duty' clause that allows inspectors to enforce regulations that are not published or are poorly understood by enterprises," says the Cato Handbook for Congress (pdf). "OSHA is charged with protecting workers from job-related injuries and illness. All Americans want safe jobs, just as they want a clean environment, no automobile deaths, and no crime. Unfortunately, a society free of risk is not realistic. People are generally unwilling to accept the severe restrictions on personal freedoms as well as the monumental economic expense needed to pursue the impossible task of eliminating all risks to personal health and safety. And attempts to eliminate one risk or danger often create other risks, some worse than the originals. As it currently operates, OSHA does not increase worker safety in a cost-effective manner. The workers' compensation policies of state governments, for better or for worse, have the major effect on workplace safety. And minor reforms of OSHA probably will not better protect workers; they will simply add to the costs of doing business."

The Regulation article "Abolishing OSHA" by Thomas J. Kniesner and John D. Leeth builds on this argument. "Telling OSHA horror stories is fun for many people. Some stories are blatant exaggerations, and we are obligated to correct the story that OSHA regulations prevent dentists from returning teeth to young children to put under their pillows for the tooth fairy. OSHA standards only require dentists to treat extracted teeth as hazardous wastes within the workplace. Nothing prevents a dentist from returning a tooth to the person from whom it was extracted. Of course, we are sympathetic to dentists who may be reluctant to return 'hazardous wastes' to small children because, were a child infected by a blood-borne disease from a returned tooth, the dentist could face a costly legal battle trying to avoid liability for damages in an increasingly litigious United States. Perhaps a good direction for workplace safety policy would be to phase out OSHA-if the agency cannot be shut down at this time-with an immediate revision of OSHA's current approach to standard-setting, inspections, and fines. State policymakers in the meantime should work to reform their workers' comp. programs. Insurance rules, when set by companies subject to market forces, protect safety in the most cost-effective manner. As important, state policymakers should reform their tort law systems to allow workers to seek redress from employers in true cases of negligence and reckless endangerment."

Strike Three

President Clinton picked up where the left left off in a meeting with "Third Way" political leaders in Europe this weekend. Clinton, expressing concerns about "people and places that are completely left behind," called on prosperous nations to spread global wealth by helping poor countries with Internet hookups, cell phones, debt relief and small loans. "How can we continue to grow the economy? You can bring investment to the places that are left behind," Clinton said. The "Third Way" is a loose ideology largely built by new leaders of formerly liberal and left parties in Europe. Leaders at the Third Way event included Italian Premier Massimo D'Alema, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

In the paper "The 'Third Way' Keeps Countries in the Third World" (pdf), Jose Pinera wrote, "the notion that there is a 'Third Way' between free-market democratic capitalism and socialist statism [is a] dangerous and erroneous idea [that] bred the structural problems that erupted in the [Asian financial] crisis. In this case, the Third-Way notion was introduced as the 'Asian model,' in which a distorted version of free-market democratic capitalism was adopted in a geographic region of the world on the basis of what were called 'Asian values.' But as Chris Patten, former governor of Hong Kong, has said in his recent book, 'Asian values were a shorthand for the justification of authoritarianism, bossiness and closed collusion.' The Asian Third Way consisted of two interrelated third ways: one between the free market and socialism; and the other between democracy based on the rule of law and totalitarian dictatorship."

I DARE You

American teenagers are using fewer illegal drugs, AP reports. The anti-drug advocacy group Partnership for a Drug-Free America has released its 12th survey of U.S. teenagers, finding that 40 percent of those questioned felt "really cool" teens did not use drugs, an increase of 5 percentage points from last year. "The tide appears to be turning. Across the board teenagers are disassociating drugs from critically important badges of teen identity," said Partnership Chairman James E. Burke.

But while the news is benign, it serves as cover for the insidious, futile and ongoing "War on Drugs." In the Cato Policy Analysis "A Society of Suspects: The War on Drugs and Civil Liberties", Steven Wisotsky wrote, " With the War on Drugs… the wisdom of the Founders has been cast aside. In their shortsighted zeal to create a 'Drug-Free America'… our political leaders--state and federal, elected and appointed--have acted as though the end justifies the means, repudiating our heritage of limited government and individual freedoms while endowing the bureaucratic state with unprecedented powers. That the danger to our freedom is real and not just a case of crying wolf is confirmed by the warnings of a few judges, liberals and conservatives alike, who, insulated from elective politics, have the independence to be critical. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, denounced compulsory urinalysis of Customs Service employees 'in the front line' of the War on Drugs as an 'invasion of their privacy and an affront to their dignity.' In another case, Justice John Paul Stevens lamented that 'this Court has become a loyal foot soldier' in the War on Drugs. For his part, Justice Thurgood Marshall was moved to remind the Court that there is 'no drug exception' to the Constitution."

"The government has been trying to solve the drug problem for years now but has had little to show for its efforts. Even at the height of the War on Drugs in 1992, a full 32 percent of high school seniors reported having used marijuana; nearly 10 percent had used hallucinogens; and cocaine use (including 'crack' cocaine) was in the double digits," Ryan H. Sager wrote in the commentary "Ads Won't Keep Kids Off Drugs". "Now politicians desperate to be seen as 'doing something' about the drug problem have come up with the idea that if only we can saturate the air waves with enough anti-drug propaganda, we will finally start to see teen drug use begin to fall. However, I can tell you first-hand that such drug 'education' initiatives have become a joke among teenagers. Everything from D.A.R.E. to drug education classes to anti-drug advertisements is a target of ridicule for youth who see those efforts as nothing more than heavy-handed admonitions from hypocritical baby boomers. Everyone I know has been through a drug education program of some sort and has seen anti-drug advertising, yet I do not know a single person who has stayed away from drugs because of those influences."