Who Makes The Laws?

Who makes the laws? Well, politicians make the laws, lawmakers make the laws, they make them at the federal, state and local level, and that's generally how we think of it, but they don't do it really on their own. So they are informed by special interest groups, companies, trade associations, individuals who have a particular interest in getting something done, and that's what they do. Otherwise you might think that they just go to Congress and the state capitols and come up with ideas and watch television, read the newspapers, get informed by the media and say, "These are the problems that we think we want to solve. And so we're going to make some laws around that." They're informed by lots of sources. The sources are the ones I just included, but they also include lobbyists, attorneys, and on the rare occasion, the constituent. And that's you.

So here's the group of generally people who inform the law maker about what they want to get done. Now, the interesting thing is if you have an active interest in something, then of course you're going to pursue it and try and make it happen. And you're either trying to do one or two things, you're either trying to promote something or stop something from happening and that's generally what all of these groups do, including the special interests or the lobbyists or whomever. But that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to get something done. And in reality, what... if you think of this, what they're really doing is they're informing the politician whether they come. And again, I forgot to include, you know, think tanks and media and really everybody, but what they're trying to do is they're trying to solve a problem, right? And come up with a solution.

However, if they only have a limited number of folks who are giving them input, they're going to use that and base the rule or law or regulation that they come up with on those particular groups. So once the law making body makes the law, they hand it off to the agencies and the agencies have the ability to make rules and regulations and there's lots of agencies at the state level and the federal level. And they then draft all these rules and regulations and many of them, and you might be familiar with this, with the, uh, what is the Federal Trade Commission? I guess so, no, no, the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, they have open comment periods where anyone can come in and leave a comment and obviously they get lots and lots of comments in some cases with regard to, for instance, net neutrality.

I believe they had millions of comments and they try to weigh all that and make sure that one person didn't write the same comment a thousand times; the whole robot legislation problem that can happen. But the key is that often the average person or the small business is not connected to this process. And by the time the law gets in and it is announced, then we look around and say, "Wow, where did that come from? Who's crazy idea was that?" But you have to get into the game. That's really what I'm saying. So if you are not involved and you're not thinking about issues or problems in your community, then you have to follow whatever rules come up. That's just kinda how that works. But if you want to be involved then you need to participate. And that's really more than voting.

It isn't just like, OK, well if I vote once every four years, I'm good. No, you have to look at the issues that affect your business and say, "Hey, here's a problem. I have a unique solution. I want to get something done." And instead of sitting here at the bottom of this list of people, you need to move up and that's what we are advocating for. And that's what we're trying to help you do. So if you'd like to learn more, feel free to leave comments, feel free to share this video or share the email. Any of that would be helpful because I think that we have, as most people know, a doubling of information every year, year and a half. And I think we're at a point where probably the lawmakers cannot keep up. And if you only have a few groups feeding into that and they're the only ones giving information about what the solution should be then the average small business, the average person is probably not being heard.

And I think that becomes evident when you see the number of people who are now protesting and marching in an effort to make their voices heard. But that may not be the best, most efficient way because while you're out marching, these guys are in crafting legislation. So that's where you need to be. You need to get into the game and find a way to do that and that really is the key to moving forward. So hopefully that's helpful. And again, feel free to share. Leave comments. I'd love to hear back from you. Thanks so much.