Prominent Think Tank Weighs In On Regulatory Assault On Yoga

[Guest guest]

A former employer of mine, the libertarian Cato Institute (www.cato.org), which

is the most clicked on think tank on the internet and is the think tank with the

most references in media stories, has posted at its blog an agreement with the

yogis alarmed at the movement of state governments to subject our market to

suffocating regulation.

 

Having lobbied for 2 decades, I'll be glad to answer any questions on the pros

and cons of regulation. Please familiarize yourself with this threat, so you

are prepared to participate in any needed grassroots effort in the future, most

likely to minimize the damage these bureaucrats and their political overseers

are going to impose on us, whether we like it or not.

 

And if you're a type that likes government, please ponder the old saying that,

" what government can do FOR you, eventually can do TO you " ! Regulation never is

good. It simply is corporate welfare to the larger companies (in this case, the

larger yoga franchises), that have the funds to comply with the barriers to

entry. Smaller, less popular offerings will disappear, just as happens in all

markets that are regulated. And all markets are regulated - there is no such

thing as a free market. Here's Cato's comment on the New York Times story:

 

from:

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/07/10/yoga-instructors-enemies-of-the-states\

/#more-8057 (It's best to go to the link to read it in its original

presentation, but I've pasted it below).

 

Yoga Instructors: Enemies of the State(s)

 

Posted by Tad DeHaven

 

The NY Times reports today on various state government efforts to regulate yoga

classes by forcing instructors to obtain a government license.

 

I'm not going to get into why government licensing is a pernicious racket here.

Rather, I just want to make a point about the nature of the mini–Washington DCs

currently in charge of laundering Uncle Sam's so-called economic " stimulus "

money.

 

From the NYT article:

 

In March, Michigan gave schools on the list one week to be certified by the

state or cease operations. Virginia's cumbersome licensing rules include a

$2,500 sign-up fee — a big hit for modest studios that are often little more

than one-room storefronts.

 

Lisa Rapp, who owns My Yoga Spirit in Norfolk, Va., said she had canceled

her future classes and was preparing to close her seven-year-old business this

summer. " This caused us to shut down the studio all together, " Ms. Rapp said.

" It's too bad, because this community really needs yoga. "

 

A nice little story to keep in mind the next time you hear some politician or

government apologist claim that the states' current inability to spend as they

did before the recession is somehow endangering an economic recovery.

 

I think what disgusts me the most about this story is the fact that the yoga

" industry " opened itself up for attack by creating an online registry " to

establish teaching standards in an effort to have the industry regulate itself. "

As a friend sarcastically intoned to me in an email, " They tried to

self-regulate and Leviathan just ended up using it to impose regulation.

Brilliant. "

 

The NYT captures the mentality of these bureaucratic thugs:

 

The conflict started in January when a Virginia official directed regulators

from more than a dozen states to an online national registry of schools that

teach yoga and, in the words of a Kansas official, earn a " handsome income " in

the process…

 

" If you're going to start a school and take people's money, you should play

by a set of rules, " said Patrick Sweeney, a Wisconsin licensing official, who

believes that in 2004 he was the first state official to discover the online

registry and use it to begin regulating yoga teaching.

 

The bright side is that these yoga instructors are feeling the government's boot

on their throat and not liking it:

 

Brette Popper, a co-founder of Yoga City NYC, a Web site that has closely

chronicled licensing developments, said that the yoga community — described on

the site as " a group that doesn't even always agree about how to pronounce `Om'

" — was finally uniting around a common enemy. (Emphasis mine.)

 

The NYT quotes one regulation opponent as saying the conflict is about

" bureaucracy versus freedom. " Amen, my friend. I don't know much about yoga,

and I'm as flexible as steel, but today we lovers of liberty are all yoga

instructors!

 

 

Tad DeHaven • July 10, 2009 @ 3:02 pm

 

Filed under: Regulatory Studies; Tax and Budget Policy

 

Tags: economic stimulus, regulation, rent-seeking, Yoga

 

Charles D. Frohman

202-258-8027

 

My profiles at:

LinkedIn and Facebook

[Guest guest]

Hello all,Well I live in Canada so I don't know if there is talk to regulate yoga but I don't think it's a bad thing as there have been a couple of posts against it.Paula

[Guest guest]

'I think what disgusts me the most about this story is the fact that the yoga

" industry " opened itself up for attack by creating an online registry " to

establish teaching standards in an effort to have the industry regulate

itself. " '---I don't think this government licensing phenomenon is a backlash of

the Yoga Alliance trying to establish certification guidelines. As it stands

now, our national yoga community has very loose regulations--200, 500 hr, but as

we all the know, the content and caliber of each training program can differ

greatly across the country. This is more about government seeing potential $ in

this popular and ever-growing industry, and wanting to capitalize on it. So its

not our 'self-regulation' that is bringing this attention on, but rather our

success. We are all shining lighthouses, creating more lights and bundles of

joy, which is going to attract people who what to reap the benefits of our

actions without doing any of the work.

I think that if we get too preoccupied with making money or personal/studio

popularity, then that is going to attract more physical restriction and

attention. We have to stay on our toes with the changing climates and keep our

practices aligned with the true yogic message of what we do, and why we do it.

Then we can fight any government impositions with the logic, honesty, and

eloquence we will need. We are charting new territory and need to keep our minds

sharp and support each other with the challenges we face.

 

Sat nam,

Kehar Kaur

 

>

[Guest guest]

Sounds relevant.

Siri Bandhu

Humble Moderator

www.ottawaweddingsyourway.com

Kundalini-Yoga , "Joanna" <jkoslowsky wrote:>> 'I think what disgusts me the most about this story is the fact that the yoga "industry" opened itself up for attack by creating an online registry "to establish teaching standards in an effort to have the industry regulate itself."'---I don't think this government licensing phenomenon is a backlash of the Yoga Alliance trying to establish certification guidelines. As it stands now, our national yoga community has very loose regulations--200, 500 hr, but as we all the know, the content and caliber of each training program can differ greatly across the country. This is more about government seeing potential $ in this popular and ever-growing industry, and wanting to capitalize on it. So its not our 'self-regulation' that is bringing this attention on, but rather our success. We are all shining lighthouses, creating more lights and bundles of joy, which is going to attract people who what to reap the benefits of our actions without doing any of the work. > I think that if we get too preoccupied with making money or personal/studio popularity, then that is going to attract more physical restriction and attention. We have to stay on our toes with the changing climates and keep our practices aligned with the true yogic message of what we do, and why we do it. Then we can fight any government impositions with the logic, honesty, and eloquence we will need. We are charting new territory and need to keep our minds sharp and support each other with the challenges we face. > > Sat nam,> Kehar Kaur > > >>

[Guest guest]

Kehar Kaur wrote:'I think what disgusts me the most about this story is the fact that the yoga "industry" opened itself up for attack by creating an online registry "to establish teaching standards in an effort to have the industry regulate itself."'--- I don't think this government licensing phenomenon is a backlash of the Yoga Alliance trying to establish certification guidelines. As it stands now, our national yoga community has very loose regulations- -200, 500 hr, but as we all the know, the content and caliber of each training program can differ greatly across the country. This is more about government seeing potential $ in this popular and ever-growing industry, and wanting to capitalize on it. So its not our 'self-regulation' that is bringing this attention on, but rather our success.

I respond:

Absolutely, Kehar. My friend Tad was wrong to blame the innovative Yoga Alliance for the typical government exploitation we're now seeing in a growing number of states to regulate yoga. Maybe the author was caught on the statements of the regulators, such as Wisconsin's Sweeney (see the original New York Times article) who said his idea of yoga regulation came from seeing the Yoga Alliance registry. It's sick that this bureaurcrat would blame his violent act (taking income from people at the point of a gun, since guns will be used if you try to avoid paying taxes, and threatening yogis with fines, again at the point of a gun, if they violate the pending regulations) on a peaceful, productive act (the registry) by a private entity (Yoga Alliance). It doesn't matter what the bureaucrat uses as his excuse to smother an industry - he should be blamed, not the alliance. Thanks

again Kehar.

Amar Atma

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam

 

I agree with you on the regulation of yoga. I do not understand the statement:

" Regulation never is good. " If this would be true then you must think all

environmental laws are not good. You don't appreciate clean water or clean air

and want to have companies put any chemicals they want into foods? The laws

regulating worker's safety and go back to the day of Upton Sinclair's " The

Jungle " . No consumer protection? Caveat Emptor? The nearly unanimous knock on

the current recession is that it is caused by a rescinding of the laws

protecting the economy since the Great Depression and the lack of regulation.

It seems to me that there needs to be regulation with consciousness in most

things.

 

GuruBandhu

 

> And if you're a type that likes government, please ponder the old saying that,

" what government can do FOR you, eventually can do TO you " ! Regulation never is

good. It simply is corporate welfare to the larger companies (in this case, the

larger yoga franchises), that have the funds to comply with the barriers to

entry. Smaller, less popular offerings will disappear, just as happens in all

markets that are regulated. And all markets are regulated - there is no such

thing as a free market. Here's Cato's comment on the New York Times story:

[Guest guest]

GURUBANCHU WROTE: I agree with you on the regulation of yoga. I do not

understand the statement: " Regulation never is good. "

 

I RESPOND: Perhaps I should have said " regulation, if done by the government,

never is good " . Because regulating oneself actually is a good thing. Indeed,

the best regulation there is, in the market, is reputation. If one loses his or

her credibility, ones reputation suffers and the business goes bankrupt (unless

your business is " too big to fail, in which case Bush and then Obama gives you a

taxpayer bailout). That's why we gain so much in a market free of unnecessary

red tape. The more red tape from bureaucracies, the less choice we get in the

market. John Stossel in this 20/20 report demonstrated how rules mess up

society's spontaneous order, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT50WKG1Tgg

 

GURUBANDHU WROTE: If this would be true then you must think all environmental

laws are not good. You don't appreciate clean water or clean air and want to

have companies put any chemicals they want into foods?

 

I RESPOND: How can we presume that the only way to clean our water and air is

with the theft of taxes from workers, to fund bureaucrats to do the cleaning?

There'a another solution to pollution ignored by the mainstream media, and

that's because the government is the biggest offender of all. It's called

" making polluters pay " , but governments have sovereign immunity from being sued

- Ms Ruwart explains it best from her classic, " Healing Our World " :

http://www.ruwart.com/environ.lpn.wpd.html. As far as knowing the ingredients

in what we consume, plenty of organic companies today label with pride their

healthful contents - indeed, many of our yogi friends are prohibited by the FDA

from advertising even more on their label. The problem here is, obviously,

government.

 

GURUBANCHU WROTE: The laws regulating worker's safety and go back to the day of

Upton Sinclair's " The Jungle " . No consumer protection? Caveat Emptor?

 

I RESPOND: How much opportunity cost have we suffered for the decision by our

government to smother the economy with controversial regulations based on

anecdotes and alarmist stories like those published by the noted statist

Sinclair? I and H.L. Mencken recommend the other Sinclair, the vastly superior

writer Sinclair Lewis, to get the other side of the issue, how " do gooder "

disease leads to the " law of unintended consequences " . As for " consumer

protection " , the best protection from unscrupulous shysters is " caveat emptor " ,

for the buyer to be skeptical. Regulations only build " moral hazard " , where

people naively think regulations are going to protect them from harm. Indeed,

the best regulator in the market is " reputation " , wherein bad behavior by a

producer necessarily will lead to bankruptcy. Industrialization relieved poor

tenant farmers from a life of drudgery, and expanding trade leads factory

workers to improved conditions once high prices bring better companies into

markets. You can't improve these conditions by snapping your fingers and

establishing a rule.

 

GURUBANDHU: The nearly unanimous knock on the current recession is that it is

caused by a rescinding of the laws protecting the economy since the Great

Depression and the lack of regulation.

 

I RESPOND: What makes the " lack of regulation " the unanimously agreed cause of

our worsening recession? The state of the art in political economic analysis

comes from the University of Chicago's Journal of Law and Economics, and no one

in their right mind believes that there is a lack of regulation in the financial

market. As a former lobbyist for the mortgage brokers, title insurers and

federal credit unions, and having earned a living in the mortgage industry, I

can assure you that there is no lack of regulation - there are literally DOZENS

of laws and regulations diverting a huge percentage of business income to

compliance - income that should instead going to supplying consumer demand.

What aggravates recessions into depressions, like is happening now and which

happened in the 30s, is the mere existence of a central government bank - called

the Federal Reserve over the past 100 years. Subsidizing interest rates and

lending, the Federal Reserve sends false signals to entrepreneurs, who

malinvest, leading inevitably to a Bust, which we're in now. See

www.lewrockwell.com.

 

GURUBANDHU WROTE: It seems to me that there needs to be regulation with

consciousness in most things.

 

I WROTE: Today's conscious bureaucrat will be tomorrow's manipulative

regulator. Just as people didn't want the eminent George Washington to be King,

even though he was trustworthy, we don't want to empower unelected regulators,

even if they're your best friend this year. Next year he'll be a less friendly

replacement.

 

CONCLUSION: Folks, we've arrived at kundalini yoga to empower our souls. Let's

continue this advanced learning by taking that curiousity to politics as well -

don't just believe the simplistic mainstream experts. Do your own

investigations. Google " Reason magazine " , " Cato Institute " , " Lew Rockwell

blog " , and go to www.infowars.com. Short readings every day will get you to a

place where, as Yogi Bhajan said, you no longer can be controlled.

 

Sat nam,

Amar Atma