Regulations, regulations everywhere, and the job market continues to shrink

Every week, yes folks every single week from now on, President Obama is going to deliver new ideas to create jobs. It's The Idea Of The Week Club!

I know he's just getting started, but let's see what this week's ideas are.

New, stricter fuel-economy standards for heavy trucks which will force thousands of long-haul truckers out of business and significantly increase expenses on all trucking companies.

Nope, no new jobs there. But the Department of Transportation is on a roll.

All farmers must get commercial drivers licences. New regulations introduced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is a part of DOT, reclassify all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Motor Vehicles. Everybody on the farm who drives a tractor now needs a CDL.

Your riding mower has to display a US DOT number. And don't forget to log your miles. In triplicate. Ray LaHood wants to know how many hours you worked each month too.

The EPA is plowing forward with new Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) mandates. The regulations would force coal energy plants to install giant scrubber-like materials inside smokestacks to capture and cleanse carbon particles before their atmospheric release.

The upgrade cost would fall on company employees and coal miners in the form of layoffs, as well as on businesses, which could expect to pay more for energy.

Hmmm. Not a lot of job creation in that department. But Gaia is happy!

New federal regulations are strangling New Hampshire's fishing fleet. Under the old regulations Captain Neil Pike ran 3 boats a day alongside 25 to 30 others from the small harbor in Seabrook, NH. New "catch-share" standards imposed earlier this year limit his annual haul so dramatically he's cut back to fishing from 2 boats, 3 days a week, and he sees only a handful of others still trying to eke out a living from the sea. His net income is down by more than half.

Doesn't sound like he'll be hiring anyone.

The Labor Department plans to remove the "companionship exemption" from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This exemption from minimum wage and overtime requirements for some personal care assistants was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Oftentimes an elderly or infirm person merely needs someone else in the house in order to remain independent. Live-in and sleep-over time provides family members with a vital respite while requiring little or no actual "work." Dramatically increasing the cost of these services would tend to price most caregivers out of the market.

Your babysitter wants a union.

The FDA has reclassified walnuts as a "drug." Diamond Foods sells walnuts, which they tout as good for you. The FDA sent them a "cease and desist" letter. "Because of these intended uses, your walnut products are drugs ... Your walnut products are also new drugs ... [Therefore] they may not be legally marketed in the United States without an approved new drug application." Oh, and since there are no instructions on the package as to how to eat a walnut, they wrote, "the labeling for these drugs fails to bear adequate directions for use."

The nuts at the FDA are off the wall.

On the plus side, this last example might just create some new jobs. For lawyers.

Keep up the good work Barry! I'll check back next week and let you guys know if he has any more job crushing creating ideas. I'm sure they'll be doozies!

Posted at 13:14 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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