Things got off to a good start late last week, but donations slowed down over the weekend. I’m a little less than a third of the way, at $2160, with a three and a half weeks to go. That’s plenty of time, but I fear that I’ve already plucked all the low-hanging fruit, so spread the word, please.
I’m flying to DC tomorrow to go to the Global Exploration and International space Development conferences, so I may try to get face time with potential larger donors for matching donations. It also might help if folks would comment over there to entice new donors who come across it.
This could be a cost reducer for the space industry (among others). It might also be useful, eventually, for fabricating parts in space using local materials.
My colleague at CEI, Iain Murray, says it’s time to give fishermen property rights. Some of the thoughts here could potentially apply to an asteroid mining regime as well.
Estimated regulatory costs, while “off budget,” are equivalent to over 48 percent of the level of federal spending itself.
The 2011 Federal Register finished at 81,247 pages, just shy of 2010’s all-time record-high 81,405 pages.
Regulatory compliance costs dwarf corporate-income taxes of $198 billion, and exceed individual income taxes and even pre-tax corporate profits.
Agencies issued 3,807 final rules in 2011, a 6.5 percent increase over 3,573 in 2010.
Of the 4,128 regulations in the works at year-end 2011, 212 were “economically significant,” meaning they generally wield at least $100 million in economic impact.
822 of those 4,128 regulations in the works would affect small businesses.
The total number of economically significant rules finalized in 2011 was 79, down slightly from 2010 but up 92.7 percent over five years, and 108 percent over ten years.
Recent costly federal agency initiatives include the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards Rule and the Department of Transportation’s Fuel Economy Standards.