Forum Post: Regulatory agencies have been bought...

...and thus they should be abolished, right? Wrong. If something can be bought once it can be bought again; why not buy back our regulatory agencies? It seems like the problem that people have with regulatory agencies is that they're deliberately kept toothless by a symbiotic relationship with the very industries that they belong staying on top of. I agree with you; that's a serious problem. However, the solution to that is to sever the relationship, not to destroy the regulatory agencies. Slap cooldown periods on people attempting to use the revolving door; if you want to go from the board of Exxon Mobil to the EPA that's fine by me, but expect to be out of work for two decades while you sit on the sidelines as required by law. Same if you want to go the other way.

At the same time, start actively recruiting environmental science/ecology and chemical engineering students to the EPA, nuclear engineering students to the IAEA, etc, medical and Pharm. D. students to the FDA, etc. so that Uncle Sam has a source of talent and knowledge independent of the private sector. There are already ROTC scholarships and financial assistance from places like NASA-JPL (they pay your tuition and you agree to work for them for a certain number of years; similar programs for students in fields relevant to regulatory agencies is a great way to get and hold new talent.