Costs of Regulations

To the Editor:

You criticize our study of federal agencies, “Ten Thousand Commandments,” for analyzing the costs of regulations without adjusting for their alleged benefits (“Mr. Ryan’s One Idea,” editorial, June 19). You call this approach an “absurdity.”

Would you buy a car from a salesman who hid its price and instead touted some figure that was adjusted for the vehicle’s alleged benefits? When it comes to regulation, government bombards us with claims about its benefits. That’s all the more reason we need to know its straightforward costs as well.

SAM KAZMAN

General Counsel
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington

Originally posted to The New York Times.