Posted by
TheRationalRight on Monday, June 22, 2009 8:16:13 PM
A common complaint I've read about the previous administration concerns their insatiable appetite for deregulation. Many claim that their single-minded march for this quest steered our economic ship directly into the titanic iceberg that began its descent.
For these writers, I have a three-letter response: SOX.
Anyone employed by a large business has become intimately aware of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation that very closely regulates business. This was enacted during the previous administration at a time when Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches of government. And, it can be argued, this act is what led, in large part, to our economic downturn.
Ten years ago, my company knew what we were doing right, and we knew where we could make improvements. However, some of the improvements we wanted to make were not economically feasible. So we took care to do our jobs well, always trying to improve our processes where we could justify the cost. When we got to work in the morning, we thought of how we should go about doing our work in a professional, responsible, ethical manner. (Yes, ETHICS has always been stressed.)
Now, our entire focus is changed. No one talks about actually DOING the work in a professional, responsible, ethical manner. Everyone instead is concerned with VERIFYING that we have professional, responsible, ethical PROCESSES. It's not about what we accomplish, and it's not about how it benefits our customers. It's about whether it will withstand a SOX audit. And progress has nearly grinded to a halt.
Apply this same thinking to industries other than mine. Take healthcare. I've heard medical professionals speak about the "good ol' days" when their focus was on patient care. Now the focus is on following documented procedures. Take education. I've heard stories about teachers who are restricted to prewritten lesson plans in order to ensure that every student receives the same quality of instruction. Setting a minimum level of standards is laudable, but this also definitively sets a maximum level of standards.
I am not against regulation. I am against reactionary regulation. SOX is an excellent example of such. SOX requires businesses to spend millions of dollars on projects that will never provide a dime's return on investment.
Since SOX was passed by the previous administration, you can still assess the blame on them. Just don't say the problem was caused by a lack of regulation.
If you think regulation is the answer to our financial woes, congratulations. You're qualified to be elected to congress. But you're certainly not qualified to run a business.