Politics: Government Policy Entrenchment

There is a large problem within government in the form of policy entrenchment. Entrenchment is when a public policy creates a group of people who use that policy to make sure it doesn’t change. This group is often a powerful group such as the mining industry or agricultural industry. As long as these people are around, the policy is extremely unlikely to change. Most of these industries are bad for the public and the environment, but they create a lot of money so they have a lot of power.

Entrenchment often keeps a harmful policy in place that is beneficial to the industry profit-wise, but not really any use for anyone else. The 1872 Mining Act allowed any individual the right to purchase the rights to minerals under public land for a very cheap cost and the government has to give it to them if they have the intent to mine the minerals. One mining company sought after the rights of land that bordered Yellowstone National Park. The government gave them the rights to another piece of land so as to not disturb the ecosystem of Yellowstone. Fortunately, the company accepted the deal although they did not have to. If they did not, the government could not have stopped them.
The food industry is another good example. I recently saw the film Food, Inc and was not all that shocked to discover that individuals high up in government and the food industry switched between the two in a revolving door effect. Some people in the food industry became Supreme Court Justices, EPA officials, part of presidential administrations, and FDA officials. An FDA official who used to be an attorney for Monsanto oversaw the FDA’s decision to not label genetically modified organisms. The food industry taking away consumers’ rights to know what is in their food with their power.

Policy entrenchment has to stop. It benefits only the company that is using entrenchment and so they will never stop using it. Take Monsanto for instance – they own 90% of the soybeans used in the United States and the soybeans are genetically modified organisms. I do not want to eat genetically modified organisms and I certainly don’t want a government official deciding whether or not it’s safe for me to eat let alone one who used to work for Monsanto. Someone has to wedge a door stop under the revolving door or government and industry will be too closely affiliated with each other. This is when government stops working for the good of the people and works only for the good of a few wealthy industries. Maybe I’m mistaken, but last time I checked the government was set up for the people, not a few greedy individuals.