Regulations - Tone At The Top & Toyota

The Toyota acceleration problems have been ignored by the U.S. regulators for years according to the article "Insurer warned U.S. on Toyotas" by Peter Whoriskey in the Feb. 9, 2010 Washington Post. This is not surprising and is a good example of the "Tone At The Top" directing how the rank and file perform their duties.

The Bush 2 administration was very strongly against enforcement of government regulations. Similarly, to a lesser extent, were all administrations from Reagan forward. Those in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ignored facts from accident records and insurance companies about a pattern of unintended acceleration in Toyotas that flooded in from 2007 and before. There is a correlation here. The NHTSA clearly knew that their "boss" and administration did not want regulations to be enforced and that, either overtly or sublimally, led them to not cognitively process the facts into action. So people died.

Similar action over the last several decades can be seen in the presumptive ideology that business is moral, ethical and can do no harm. This is of course absolutely false. Business has no morality or ethics other than what is imposed on it by law or direct business feedback in the form of lost profits. This latter feedback is delayed until after the harm is done. The only proactive reason for business to be moral and ethical is the law and proper enforcement of it. The "American Values" that have been admired around the world do in part stem from this integrity of business that is enforced by our system of government.

The biggest example of damage that can be done by not imposing and enforcing regulation is the current economic crisis which poses the greatest threat to U.S. and world economy seen in the last 80 years. This crisis would not have occurred had the Glass-Steagall Act not been repealed and/or other regulations had been put in place to impose responsibility and accountability on the investment banking and Wall Street communities.

It is curious that the current politics in Washington by those out of power (GOP) is to revert to more of the same de-regulation policies that have been proven disastrous. These politicians clearly put their lust for personal power above the interests of their constituents, the nation and it's people. Whether our system will work to correct this problem in time to preserve the union is not clear.