The UK has a history of billing for efficiency. Minimize wasteful inquiries the UK makes its government officials pay for each in an effort to modify behavior and minimize government waste. There are many other areas where the UK charges their government for access to resources that the US government has access to without charge. What the UK is forgetting, in my opinion, is that this is tax money being spent. Increasing the cost of government through revolving door fees only hurts the tax payer. The more cost effective way is to require the companies to absorb the cost of these inquiries. The cost is then passed on to the customer without the overhead of a government taxation process. (cut out the middle man) The customer (tax payer) is going to pay anyway. This way they pay less because there are fewer layers in the process. In the US we see a similar analogy where the congress is considering charging the federal government for access to radio frequencies and other resources because they believe making these resources a budgetary burden will increase the efficiency of use. It won't. You modify the behavior of a government through the process of governance and regulation. You modify the behavior of the consumer through supply and demand. Adam Smith meets Thomas Jefferson.
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The UK has a history of billing for efficiency. Minimize wasteful inquiries the UK makes its government officials pay for each in an effort to modify behavior and minimize government waste. There are many other areas where the UK charges their government for access to resources that the US government has access to without charge. What the UK is forgetting, in my opinion, is that this is tax money being spent. Increasing the cost of government through revolving door fees only hurts the tax payer. The more cost effective way is to require the companies to absorb the cost of these inquiries. The cost is then passed on to the customer without the overhead of a government taxation process. (cut out the middle man) The customer (tax payer) is going to pay anyway. This way they pay less because there are fewer layers in the process.
In the US we see a similar analogy where the congress is considering charging the federal government for access to radio frequencies and other resources because they believe making these resources a budgetary burden will increase the efficiency of use. It won't. You modify the behavior of a government through the process of governance and regulation. You modify the behavior of the consumer through supply and demand. Adam Smith meets Thomas Jefferson.