We live in an era so characterized by attempts to achieve dramatic or revolutionary changes (”disruption”, it is so often called) that we often overlook just how significant small changes can be. Yet those seemingly marginal changes can often be radically powerful at improving our quality of life.
■ A great example is the introduction of portable, containerized moving systems that permit people to fill truck-sized boxes full of their possessions. They’re most obviously useful for people who are moving to new homes, but they also come in handy for households undergoing renovations or going through big life-stage changes. Having a way to unhurriedly move lots of items temporarily to a secure place for storage is a really simple innovation, yet it’s a radical improvement over what prevailed before.
■ Even a simple innovation like this still requires some attention from potential regulatory authorities. A local community might well decide to prohibit homeowners from keeping a storage unit in a driveway for months at a time. It could certainly prohibit stationing them in the street or using them for human occupancy.
■ Those regulations are almost certainly best set at the local level; there’s no need for Congressional intervention regarding moving boxes. Finding the appropriate level of regulation is important: It’s a task that comes along with virtually every possible innovation.
■ Thoughtful people need to examine just how heavily that regulation must sit, and from what level of government it should be issued. We can neither assume that every industry is capable of self-regulation from start to finish, nor should we assume that every governmental authority is the appropriate jurisdiction for regulating the public interest.
■ All of this calls for judgment, regulated by a predictable framework of law. If we find new technologies emerging without competent regulatory attention keeping pace, we should expect bad things to happen.
■ Many things will get regulated judicially, but the back-door approach also comes with considerable flaws -- not least of which is that legal claims usually start with some form of injury to the complainant. Non-governmental regulation plays a part, too, as when insurance companies and professional associations impose their own standards. Ultimately, though, innovation almost always instigates new regulation. Whether it is imposed prudentially is up to us.