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MList -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com wrote:
> I would have thought that it would bother you a tad
> more as a citizen, voter and..... **taxpayer** that
> there even COULD be an industry whose regulations
> (government [dis]function) change weekly.
Well, if it's an FDA-regulated industry, new drugs and devices come out
weekly with new characteristics. If it's the financial industry, there
seems to be a new way to steal every week. If it's health care, there
seem to be new ways to deny coverage or violate your privacy every
week. So I'm pleased that someone is looking out for the public
interest. Good that government can keep pace.
(of course, if they are arbitrarily changing data formats every week,
that's just stupid).
Regs are not inherently bad, as long as they are appropriate and
useful. When I'm flying in an airplane, I want lots of regs on that
puppy.
Since technology and business practices are changing rapidly, it makes
sense that regulations should change rapidly in response. All the new
regs are in direct response to recent headlines: securities fraud,
HIPAA, bioengineering restrictions, etc. Even pro-business politicians
are getting behind these regs, because they are dealing with issues
their voters care about: their pensions, their health, their privacy.
Believe it or not, a lot of so-called regulations are not clear-cut at
all. The actual regulations, which carry the weight of law, are usually
pretty high-level. The nuts and bolts of implementing the regs are laid
out in bulletins, guidelines, advisories, findings, and other kinds of
documents (for example, the IRS or the FDA). For Part 11 regs, a lot of
weight is attached to memos or even speeches given by one guy (forgot
his name). The gray area created by these types of advisory documents
creates a huge area of FUD for businesses, which is where consultants
come in ;-)
You can learn the regs by heart, but that's not enough - if you really
want an expert you need someone who goes to all the conferences,
networks with the regulators, and lives and breathes that stuff. And,
there is also a schmooze factor, an element of social engineering,
involved in passing audits.
Mike O.
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