What if car safety was regulated like oil and gas exploration and finance?

It is time to cut the red tape on the overregulated automotive industry. The standards for testing a new automobile before it can go to market are destroying this iconic North American industry. Other sectors, such as oil and gas exploration and finance, are showing us that amazing things can happen when the industry is allowed to do as it wants, and regulation only comes into play when there is a problem, not beforehand. I propose that the automotive industry get the same treatment - allow it to make the products that the market demands, without the rigorous safety testing that is currently required. Clearly industry self-regulation works - just look at the finance industry - and it needs to be applied to safety standards in the car manufacturing industry.

For too long, government safety regulation has forced manufacturers prove that automobiles are safe, rather than finding proof that the automobiles are unsafe, then acting. The costs of this system are astounding in both government bureaucracy and costs passed on the consumer. Government has no place in car manufacturing (unless it is bailing out the industry for its mistakes) and should let the industry work out safety standards and regulations itself.

Just imagine how much more inexpensive a car could be, if it didn’t have to go through such rigorous government mandated safety testing. The industry should be able to test the cars themselves, and provide consumers with the results, if they so choose. Consumers would be given the ultimate choice on which cars to purchase - the proven safe models, or the cheaper, untested (but still, assumedly, safe) ones. Some would say this will put consumers in danger, but I say it is simply the ultimate case of buyer beware.

The oil and gas industry are at the forefront of innovation and development because they are allowed free hand to make decisions to meet market demands, then adjust them due to potential problems. New resource extraction techniques, such as hydro-fracking and deep water oil drilling are assumed to be safe, until proven otherwise - just imagine if car manufacturing were the same!

Car manufacturing is too important to be subjected to lengthy safety reviews. By removing these pointless safety inspections, we would create jobs for everyone and make sure our own cars were on our roads, rather than foreign imports. Our economy and our automobile security depend on less regulation in car manufacturing.