Regulations, Taxes Not ‘Unnecessary’

Given the shallow reasoning he employs to back his calls for rampant deregulation and tax cuts in California (“State Reforms Are Imperative to Sustain California’s Recovery,” Feb. 19), Times economic adviser Michael J. Boskin’s claims of having received a good education in L.A. public schools is certainly suspect.

Boskin’s main point about regulations and taxes? They’re all “unnecessary,” not to mention a burden on the private sector. Unnecessary from whose perspective? In Boskin’s perfect world, his corporate friends could pollute the air, landscape and water supply and endanger the health of humans and animals alike to their hearts’ content as long as they could show it would cost them more to refrain from doing so than it would to keep on belching, dumping and abusing. And, to add profit on top of profit, Boskin wants to reduce their taxes so that the government will have fewer resources to cope with the steady increases in problems these misdeeds will create.

The problem with Boskin’s superficial argument is that a degraded environment and low quality of life for workers and customers makes for a business environment every bit as unfavorable as one in which corporations complain about regulations and expenses. As he marches in lock-step with the tedious rhetoric of so many conservative ideologues, he also ignores the fact that all these “unnecessary” regulations came about in reaction to real problems.

In that light, perhaps the only useful suggestion Boskin offers is to place the question of repealing key state regulations on the ballot. Boskin and his friends will be in for a rude surprise.

JIM BICKHART

Santa Monica