Over the past couple of years, the Delaney amendment, with its zero-risk requirement for food additives, was finally revoked. Even some abuse-ridden affirmative action programs have ceased to be sacred cows. The Supreme Court concluded that the rationale for federal set-asides was not compelling. No elaborate cost-benefit analysis was needed to make these determinations, only common sense and political spine. Find constructive substitutes.
Abolitionism has limits.
Some regulatory functions, after all, are a legitimate public responsibility. For example, key resources, such as water and some forms of energy, are still priced below their true economic value in certain parts of the country, leading to excessive consumption and serious environmental degradation. Where the use of these resources is inadequately rationed by market forces, additional restraint may be necessary. In these cases, however, simulating market incentives can be both less intrusive and more cost effective than bureaucratic edicts enforced by prosecutions, fines, and jail terms. A provision that is working wonders, however, is the allowance-trading process for sulfur dioxide emissions.