Of course, had Mr. Franklin consulted the kite-flying regulations, he would have been seen that his act of flight during inclement weather was quite illegal.
To suggest that innovation can be prodded along via regulation is to ignore the very nature of innovation. It isn't rigidly controlled; in fact, it seems the more rigid the control, the less innovation. Innovation follows unexpected routes; when everyone is looking down one path, it finds a skew path that works better. Regulation, meanwhile, demands that we stay on the SAME path.
Regulation of efficiency is weird, too. Firstly, it's trying to address a problem that we don't know whether we have. Since a gallon of gas is cheaper than a gallon of branded water, we obviously do not have an oil scarcity problem.
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