Even though we are surrounded by scores of information sources, the sheer number is enough to make one go numb. Factoids will be posted periodically to bring you bits of news which may or may not catch your fancy. Most of the Factoids will be posted to bring you counter-intuitive information which may not be covered by traditional news sources; Question: why aren’t they covered? They may go against the grain of political or cultural “acceptable” thought. Or perhaps because they cannot fit into the thirty-second sound bites without raising more questions than they answer. Hopefully, you will find them of interest!

There is a saying in certain legal circles that the average person commits three felonies a day. Impossible you say? You know the laws and you obey them? Sorry, you are simple incorrect. Certainly, if you are in business, you will commit violations of the federal government. If you are a teacher, lawyer, farmer, insurance salesperson, mother, or father, you are in grave danger of committing a federal crime. Why? Read on.

Over the past ten years, Congress has passed and place in motion an average of 344 new pieces of legislation. Each year, those new laws contain two to three million words, which outline the rules and guidelines and the costs of disobeying those words of wisdom. But there is more, for when Congress passes those laws, they send them to the correct federal agencies to be enforced and to write how they are to be administered. One, two or multiple agencies may be involved, and each one has a vested interest in making sure they have administrative and police powers to enforce their directives. Currently no one knows for certain how many federal agencies exist; the lates count put the total of over 350 agencies, but again, that is not a final count. And each one of those agencies is looking out for its own turf. At the current time, there are over 5,000 federal crimes.

But, as with government, there is always more. Those federal agencies have police powers, and they contribute by creating over 300,000 regulations which carry criminal sanctions. On top of their regulations, they also issue “guidance” documents and many appear in the federal register. If you wish to read the federal register, make yourself comfortable and the 5,000 volumes, each containing about 1,000 pages (a total of five million pages), will be brought to you. *

Aside from the possibility of committing an infraction against the hundreds of thousands of laws (all designed to make your life better), there is the cost to you of these regulations. A recent study found that the regulations passed in the last three and a half years, will cost the average American family over $47,000 over the life of those regulations. **

The next time a politician promises a goodie for you (at no cost of course), or seeks a bond for some new project that we simply cannot live without, remember the cost will be borne by you and the next time you step out your front door, you just might be committing a federal crime.

• * Figures provided by Chapter 1 of Overruled by Justice Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze
• **Study done by Casey Mulligan, University of Chicago, WSJ, 9/26/2024, ppA17