Be cautious about the gradual creep of regulations and bureaucracy.812
Humans die, but the laws they created don’t.813
The early auto industry was a hotbed of innovation at the beginning of the twentieth century. Many regulations were since added in attempts to protect consumers. The government tends to stand in the way of innovation, even with good intentions. Sometimes they overregulate industries to the point where innovation becomes difficult.
It’s crazy how much regulation there is. You can argue and get these things changed, but it takes ages. One of the things we’re trying to change is the requirement for side mirrors. Why should cars need them when tiny video cameras can display an image inside the car instead? I met with the US Secretary of Transportation and asked, “Can you change this regulation?” Still, nothing has happened. That was in 2011.814
I am incredibly compliant.815
We wouldn’t be allowed to put cars on the road if we did not comply with the vast body of automotive regulations. If we don’t comply with all of them we can’t sell the car. If we don’t comply with all of the regulations for SpaceX or for Starlink, they shut us down. My companies are cumulatively overseen by a few hundred regulatory agencies.816
Once in a while, there will be something I disagree with. If I disagree with a regulation, it’s because I believe a regulation meant to do good does not actually do good. I believe it is my obligation to object to a regulation that does not serve the public good. That’s the only time I object.
Q: But you typically don’t like regulations, correct? We read many articles about you pushing back on the regulators.
Don’t take what the media presents as the whole picture. This is not an exaggeration: There are probably 100 million regulations that my companies comply with. There are maybe five that we disagree with.
If you sum up only the arguments I had with hundreds of regulators over decades, it can sound terrible. The media does this without mentioning the 100 million regulations we agreed with. They focus only on the five I disagreed with. People only hear about the five and think, “Wow, this guy’s a real maverick.”817
The natural tendency is for the hand of the government to get heavier every year.818
The government told me if SpaceX hired anyone who is not a permanent resident of the United States I would go to prison. The presumption is that if somebody’s not a permanent resident, they might take the rocket technology to countries that would use it to cause harm to the United States. Okay, solid reasoning. I agree.819
Then a few years later, the Department of Justice sued SpaceX for failing to hire asylum seekers.
If we hire anyone who’s not a permanent resident, we go to prison. Now, we’re told if we don’t hire asylum seekers, we also go to prison. That seems insane.
We have to work to actively reduce the number of laws and regulations. Otherwise, as more laws and regulations are passed, eventually everything becomes illegal. You get into these Orwellian situations where going left is illegal and going right is illegal. There isn’t anything you can do that is legal.
That’s why the California High-Speed Rail project has built only a tiny section that doesn’t even have rail on it, even after spending several billion dollars. California has made almost everything illegal. No one can make progress. This is why we can’t build high-speed rail in America. It’s illegal.
It’s not an engineering failure; it’s the regulations.820
Something needs to change. Civilization’s arteries harden over time and we get less and less done because there’s a rule against everything.821
Obviously we don’t want world wars, but wars can have some silver lining. After World Wars I and II, there were huge resets on rules and regulations. Historically, what has cleared away the cobwebs of regulation has been war.822
Regulators and legislators create new rules and regulations every year, but don’t put any effort into removing them.823 Without a cleansing function for rules and regulations, they accumulate every year. This is a problem. 824
Eventually, we’re like Gulliver, tied down by thousands of little strings. You can’t move. No single one of those strings is the issue. The problem is there are a million of them.825 We lose our freedom, one regulation at a time.826