&gt; America has it particularly bad because a good portion of the population doesn&#x27;t believe in regulations _at all_.<p>I don&#x27;t think our crappy regulations are properly blameable on the people who believe regulations are crappy, but rather on the sort of people we hire and retain as civil servants.  &#x27;Good enough for government work,&#x27; I&#x27;m told, used to be <i>praise</i>; it sure isn&#x27;t any longer.  Nowadays both civil servants and employees of large corporations are bureaucrats first, servants second (if at all).