"Professional" bureaucrats--elected or appointed--realize that to sit around and do nothing would get them tagged with the label of lazy and irrelevant--so they legislate, regulate, and create. It doesn't matter much what they do, they only have to DO. They end up creating roadblocks and red tape. They write and pass laws and regulations--enough of them that NOBODY can actually know whether they are breaking them anymore. An area in east Spokane County was recently annexed by one of the little cities who want to be just like the bigger cities. I bought my breeding bunnies from this particular couple last fall (these folks are as pure as the wind driven snow). Recently, they had a knock on the door--from the police, who informed them that under the "new regulations", they are not allowed to have "more than 3 animals for every 8000 square feet of land". They had the audacity to have between 20 and 25 Netherland Dwarf bunnies (about 2 lbs full grown) in a spotless and very adequate shed in the yard which they bred for show purposes as a hobby. Not anymore.

Government at ALL levels has reached the point where they regulate for the sake of regulation and raise our taxes to pay for it all. If a local entity chronically runs short of funds, they will annex rural land and expand their base. Look at what our elected officials at the national level are rumbling about and the presidential candidates (some much more than others) are promising--nationalizing services and industries--railroads included (there, I got this thing on a RR topic). NOT good. Not good at all.