George Mason University's Mercatus Center released the results of a groundbreaking study earlier this year, suggesting that regulations have a "disproportionately negative effect on low-income households."
The study came to two important conclusions:
1. Regulations lead to price increases. According to the study, "The data show evidence of a statistically significant relationship between regulation and increased prices."
2. Poorer households spend more on heavily regulated goods:
The data also show that households from the poorest income groups experience the highest overall levels of inflation and the highest levels of price volatility. In comparison to wealthier households, poorer households spend a substantially larger proportion of their income on more inflation-prone, volatile, and heavily regulated goods and services.
Regulations are meant to protect consumers, but, as the study notes, "the benefit of any sort of protection must be weighed against the cost of higher prices." Over-regulation has real-world consequences that bureaucrats in Washington often fail to realize. The rules they write lower the standard of living for millions of Americans, and, because those bureaucrats are un-elected, the American people have no ability to change the status quo.
Until now. An Article V Convention of States can address the problem of federal overreach at its source. A Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that effectively limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government's ability to regulate. Click here for more information.
