Stephen Breyer and the last 10% (or bureaucratic tunnel vision)

Stephen Breyer holds one of the major problems in Regulation is the effectiveness of the regulatory constraint against the objective of regulation. Its rationale even though consistent with its action can be deem overly ambitious or extremely ineffective, specially when considering other goals of the regulator.

The problem in the U.S. regulatory system (or any other), as Breyer sees it, is an overwhelming preoccupation with "the last 10 percent." To illustrate the point, he vividly describes a case from his circuit in which the government tried to enforce the total cleanup of an already mostly clean waste dump at a cost of about $9.3 million. The law seemed to require this huge expenditure, although everyone concerned agreed that the site was clean enough for children to play there safely for 70 days each year and even to eat small amounts of contaminated dirt with no significant adverse effects. Perversely, moreover, the site was one where no children ever had played or were expected to play, and the estimated risk could have been reduced by the less costly expedient of burning the soil.