Frogs in a Pot: Excessive Regulations Gone Wild

By Mike Sparks

 

    The old adage “Frogs in a Pot” is a metaphor I’ve often heard, but never really gave it much thought. The past several years, I have seen many examples of situations, government policies, and lethargic attitudes from many who work in government or serve as elected officials. Sadly, I have witnessed much of their silence and turning a blind eye to many issues. In our lives, we have seen many who spoke up against many of these grievances from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, President Abraham Lincoln, and even Jesus himself only to ultimately give their lives for their cause.

    One of our local heroes from my hometown of Smyrna, Tenn., was a young man named Sam Davis. Sam Davis was a young scout for the Confederate army in what was known as the Coleman Scouts during the Civil War. The young 21-year-old was captured and offered his freedom if he revealed his sources, which he refused and was hanged. I’ve always admired his last words: “I would rather die a thousand deaths than betray a friend”.

    The “frogs in a pot” or “boiling frog” is a metaphor that is often used when there are changes being made and people are unaware of the changes since they are slow and gradual. The boiling frog story is an anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The basis is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not be aware of the danger and will be boiled to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to significant conditions that occur gradually. Those conditions can be excessive taxation from local governments, more regulations to small businesses, more burdensome fees from government offices, more citations from local Police departments in the name of “serving and protecting” our citizens, just to name a few.

     I often hear people complain about the Federal Government’s intrusion into our lives, from the new Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, to Common Core being implemented in our public school system, and I wholeheartedly understand their fears and concerns.  A recent example is New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg’s ban on Big Gulps drink.  

     The controversial plan to keep large sugary drinks out of restaurants and other eateries was rejected by a New York state appeals court in July of 2013, which said he had overstepped his authority in trying to impose the ban. 

    The law, which would have prohibited those businesses from selling sodas and other sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces, "violated the state principle of separation of powers," the First Department of the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division said.

    The decision, upholding a lower court ruling in March that struck down the law, dealt a blow to Bloomberg's attempt to advance the pioneering regulation as a way to combat obesity. Beverage makers and business groups, however, challenged it in court, arguing that the mayoral-appointed health board had gone too far when it approved the law.

    A unanimous four-judge panel at the appeals court agreed, finding that the board had stepped beyond its power to regulate public health and usurped the policy-making role of the legislature.

    I have seen local mandates much like Mayor Bloombergs here in my own community. I have watched a retired gentleman who operated a fruit stand be forced to build a $100,000 building or shut down, then to make matters worse the fruit stand was required to install a $40,000 sprinkler system. The irony is the small 1,500-square-foot building had two large two-car garage doors and two side exit doors, Ihave never heard of tomatoes or pumpkins being a flammable threat to one's health or property. The sad irony is that, just a few miles down the road, the new Smyrna Waffle House wasn't required to have one installed, yet they have open flames every minute they operate and house at least a dozen customers on average.

    Last year, I attended a Rutherford County Planning committee meeting in which the discussion was to require (mandate) new homes with a low-flow fire hydrant to have sprinkler systems installed. I had asked the 15-member board to raise their hands if they had a sprinkler system in their own homes. No one raised his or her hand. I asked the fire chief in the audience if he had a sprinkler system. He shook his head "no". I then mentioned to the two men who proudly had their hands raised and ironically sitting with the fire chief, "You two guys install sprinkler systems for a living don't you?", and in fact they did. 

    I also asked if they had read the State of Tennessee's report by TACIR, the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, and they gave me the deer in the headlights look. The study that TACIR performed did show Tennessee ranked high for fire deaths, but not because homes didn't have sprinkler systems. Many of the fire deaths were from older homes, mobile homes, and a lack of smoke detectors, which I believe should no doubt be required in every new home, which is in the building codes. Check out this web link for more information: http://bit.ly/1sF51IX

    Why would a group of policy advisers be concerned about this issue? Their decision, much like the city of LaVergne requiring them in any new construction, will not only add a cost of $4,000 to $6,000 to the construction of new homes, but it will also make the cost of a new home out of reach for many low income homebuyers. 

    These slow and gradual mandates, tax increases, fee increases, and more regulations are slowly impeding an individual's rights to live, work and play in a country that was founded on freedom of choice. I can easily cite many more examples of foolish governmental actions, policies and decisions that only hurt the average person and even the poor who really cannot absorb these higher costs. My fear is that it may be too late to turn the tide, and we, the American public and our future generations will eventually be the "frog in the pot" who didn't realize what was happening until the heat eventually took its life.