I agree with "congress cannot delegate it's powers" to a certain extent.
Negative example: The BATF has a splendid history of literally doing nothing except putting it's critics behind bars, while solving 0 actual crime and preventing any sort of mass tradgedies.
Positive example: The FAA has done an incredible job making air-travel safer than car travel. I have a feeling that a lot of the higher-ups are former engineers and have been able to put politics and red/blue crap aside for a common mission.
Mixed example: The FCC has done a great job on spectrum allocation. They've done a shitty job when on broadband and content regulation, with it quickly becoming politicalized and more concern about red/blue.
Good example: The FDA has done a great job in regulating the industry for their namesake: food and drugs. We have unprecedented levels of safety in both despite not having a complete knowledge of how all drugs work (biology is just complex with a lot of hidden downstream after-effects).
Poor example: The NRC has pretty much just said "No" to fucking everything in nuclear. No progress has been made. We should have 3-5 reactors (on average) in every state. Instead we're still running 50 year old designs (not _necessarily bad_ but not great either) when we could have Generation III+ with passive failure modes.
That brings me to the EPA. I think they've done a lot of good: energy efficiency ultimately benefits the consumer in nearly every case. I have an air conditioner that kicks out a splendid 58degree air stream in the summer heat and extraordinarily low energy consumption levels. The EPA has successfully sued countless corporations and created superfund sights when they just dump industrial waste without a plan to handle it.
Unfortunately, as red/blue politics get involved in an agency, everyone loses. And the finger pointing begins. As such, the only "way out" may be to say delegate it to Congress. I'm not sure where we go from here.
> The FDA has done a great job in regulating the industry for their namesake: food and drugs.
The Sackler Family/Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin has entered the chat
It's hard to see what the FDA (didn't) do in that case as anything but complete corruption. Allowing a new label for this new untested drug and then the head left to go work for Purdue shortly after? Revolving door.
I'm not sure whether "good" is better or worse than "positive", but the FDA is definitely closer to "mixed" than the FAA. I'm generally very pro-FDA for the reasons you listed, and argue against the libertarians who want to abolish it. However, there's lots of legitimate criticisms about how it's frequently too conservative in allowing trials or approval for potentially life-saving medication, or approving medications and supplements that are considered safe and commonly-used by other countries.
Scott Alexander of SSC/ACX has many[1][2][3], many[4][5][6] posts pointing out instances in which the FDA's arguable-excessive roadblocks have failed US healthcare patients, coming from his experience as a professional psychiatrist.
> Positive example: The FAA has done an incredible job making air-travel safer than car travel. I have a feeling that a lot of the higher-ups are former engineers and have been able to put politics and red/blue crap aside for a common mission.
It wasn't just a failure, and it wasn't an oversight -- the FAA simply rubberstamped anything Boeing gave it, and it wouldn't surprise anyone if there is more to the story. It was a colossal failure that led to a complete loss of trust in the FAA. The FAA went from being an agency whose expertise we lent to the rest of the world to... being just one more captured domestic regulator. I bet the Europeans will lead the investigation of the next big accident outside the U.S., as well they should.
Negative example: The BATF has a splendid history of literally doing nothing except putting it's critics behind bars, while solving 0 actual crime and preventing any sort of mass tradgedies.
Positive example: The FAA has done an incredible job making air-travel safer than car travel. I have a feeling that a lot of the higher-ups are former engineers and have been able to put politics and red/blue crap aside for a common mission.
Mixed example: The FCC has done a great job on spectrum allocation. They've done a shitty job when on broadband and content regulation, with it quickly becoming politicalized and more concern about red/blue.
Good example: The FDA has done a great job in regulating the industry for their namesake: food and drugs. We have unprecedented levels of safety in both despite not having a complete knowledge of how all drugs work (biology is just complex with a lot of hidden downstream after-effects).
Poor example: The NRC has pretty much just said "No" to fucking everything in nuclear. No progress has been made. We should have 3-5 reactors (on average) in every state. Instead we're still running 50 year old designs (not _necessarily bad_ but not great either) when we could have Generation III+ with passive failure modes.
That brings me to the EPA. I think they've done a lot of good: energy efficiency ultimately benefits the consumer in nearly every case. I have an air conditioner that kicks out a splendid 58degree air stream in the summer heat and extraordinarily low energy consumption levels. The EPA has successfully sued countless corporations and created superfund sights when they just dump industrial waste without a plan to handle it.
Unfortunately, as red/blue politics get involved in an agency, everyone loses. And the finger pointing begins. As such, the only "way out" may be to say delegate it to Congress. I'm not sure where we go from here.