I like to talk to people about government regulation of business. And quite frequently I can point out to people ways in which the government is making it harder on business, without any good reason. For example, new rules are going to require restaurants to prepare detailed ingredient disclosures. Many many restaurants are truly small businesses, owned by someone who is trying to live the American dream of owning a small business. Now they are going to encounter a Kafkaesque nightmare where they have to attempt to comply with onerous regulations. When I bring this up to my liberal friends, a frequent counter to my argument that rules like this are terrible is:

"You are in favor of deregulation then! That worked great last time! Destroyed the economy you moron!"

Truly, deregulation of restaurants had nothing to do with Wall St. So this has just got me thinking. Why do liberals think this way? Some will even argue that regulation actually creates jobs! How can this be? How can taking the guy who sells teriyaki and telling him he has to spend thousands of dollars complying with complex and onerous menu disclosure laws create jobs, except for bullying government agents who are going to try to fine the guy later for not complying, or plaintiffs lawyers looking for someone to sue?

Is the argument that because the teriyaki guy is going to have to spend money printing new menus the menu printing company is going to be better off?

It strikes me that the liberals are really out to lunch here. No pun intended.