Uploaded with ImageShack.usYeah, but that won't stop certain people from looking for that quick fix.
Have you ever heard of Paul Kennedy? Back in 1988, a book by him came out called The Rise And The Fall Of The Great Powers. He was a declinist who compared the troubles of the United States to those of the Spanish Empire when the South American gold and silver ran out.
He did so on the basis of accumulating national debt, but there's another parallel. Restrictive laws had piled up on the backs of Imperial Spain's entrepreneurial class. The trap that Spain got into was the fact that the people charged with solving the problem in large part were the problem.
A frustrated reformer, bemoaning the impossibility of reform, exclaimed: "Those who can, will not; those who will, cannot." If I fibbed and wrote that the sentence was spoken by a frustrated American reformer last week, everyone (except for those who recognized the quote) would believe me.
It's a damned hard trap to break out of. No-one likes to hear that they're part of the problem. For people who've gotten real power in their hands, it's far too easy to dismiss reformers as mere malcontents. They must be jealous!
Add to that the fact that the system is largely complaint-driven. Those restrictive laws, regulations, etc. - each and every one of them, I'd assume - have a horror story behind them that makes them seem good and moral. Consequently, "only a beast" would advocate their repeal.
The fact is, it's almost too easy to cast a reformer who has his eyes on the real problems as a jealousy-ridden bad guy. Maybe that's what keeps people looking for the quick fix.
Sorry to say this, but history offers no way out of the dilemma. France had its Revolution, but it was a latecomer to the Industrial Revolution and a laggard since then. France's answer to the Model T was the Citroen Deux Chevaux, which first came out in 1949.
The mess in Detroit by politicians, unions, lawyers and taxation/regulation of business.