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Opportunity needs footholds.

Like climbing a cliff. These aren't places anyone wants to linger, but they are absolutely essential to get to the next step. Getting to the top without them is impossible.

Such is true about business. Footholds are one of the things that many people don't understand is necessary for new businesses to start and grow. Or, even that footholds are necessary for employees who are attempting to improve their own circumstances – who want to climb a professional ladder.

The rules and regulations put forward by centralized planners are always aimed at eliminating footholds, because they pose situations that are less than ideal. Like little crevices or indentations in a rock face they appear, to uninspired minds, to be of no consequence, far more so than an opportunity.

Risk adverse individuals have a compulsion to attempt to exclude all things risky and to impose wishful thinking upon reality, such as wanting to make a solid concrete step on a cliff-face. After all, in an ideal world, wouldn't cliff faces be equipped with solid staircases? Or "better yet" (which eventuality comes with all regulators) an elevator?

This is why risk-adverse individuals are never rock climbers or entrepreneurs, but almost always they are the politicians and bureaucrats, who impose regulations that attempt to direct the actions of the adventurous. In fact, regulatory positions seem to attract the most timid, who in their hand-wringing, cringing manner are unable to even tolerate the risk-taking activities of others.

To them, things like excessive building codes, regulatory standards, minimum wages, entitlements, licensing or mandatory benefits seem like perfectly good ideas. The concept of taking a chance to learn a new skill, experimentation with methodologies, or doing without for awhile in order to afford getting to the next level, are anathema to people who lack self-confidence, who are content with being average, accepting of the status quo, and fearful of uncertainty.

Such restraints are also coveted by those who want power over others.

There is no room in their world for the Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. If they had had their way the regulators and centralized planners would have stopped these men in their earliest days. The only reason they didn't is because, with the regulators' lack of vision and deplorable ignorance, they couldn't see these men coming. These entrepreneurs were so far beyond what the regulators believed possible, that they didn't know to regulate them. If they could have, they would have, as they do, every day, for so many others.

Any more, the only entrepreneurs who escape regulatory scrutiny are those who come out of nowhere. Fortunately, for consumers, that happens quite often, but one must wonder what the world would be like if innovators in every industry were so unencumbered.

Whether it's shivering in a cold garage, working in an "office" with a dirt floor, going without meals, going without insurance, postponing other life goals, rattling around in an old pick-up, working long days/ seven days a week, enduring ridicule, working two jobs, sleepless nights, violating regulations, etc. —all are part of stories one hears from entrepreneurs who finally made it – they are also the stories of many entrepreneurs who didn't make it. And, while their ordeal might be great, those who fail must be allowed to make the choice of taking the risk, so that those who do succeed have such liberty.

Not to have to suffer such perils is part of what centralized planners want to eliminate, not just for themselves but for everyone else.

Their attention is absorbed by those who don't succeed, far more so than by those who do. Their world-vision is one of losers.

Such was the reason that our Constitution attempted to keep regulators as removed from the market place as possible. Our founders believed in the potential success of each individual.

Sadly, the Constitutional structures have been so unraveled that the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs, the innovators and job creators have been brought to their knees by the timid and fearful.

Having never understood how economics work, and having never been taught the benefits of capitalism, the regulators do not understand risk-taking. Imbued as they are, to their very core, with a desire for security, they cannot believe that anyone in their right mind would actually prefer functioning without such security.

But there have been occasions when the light glimmers through for some – such as former US Senator George McGovern, who after spending a life time extinguishing opportunity for so many others, discovered freedom's necessity when he attempted to pursue his own dream.

McGovern, who was a Democratic candidate for president in 1972, wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in 1992, recognizing how wrong he had been. He apparently came to understand that in placing controls on the lives of other people, "the people trying to keep the economy alive" are the ones "washed away."

He later wrote, "I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender."

In 1988, McGovern invested a substantial savings in Connecticut's Stratford Inn. He said, "The Stratford Inn promised the realization of a longtime dream to own a combination hotel, restaurant and public conference facility—complete with an experienced manager and staff." But he discovered that "needless regulations" —many which he previously supported — created impossible conditions for doing business. He wrote, "...my business associates and I also lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: 'Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.' It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators."

He concluded, "In short, 'one-size-fits-all' rules for business ignore the reality of the market place."

One can hardly say anything more than "amen."

But, McGovern's late-life enlightenment is not that moving; at least, not to some one who finds it incomprehensible how one human being, who knowingly knows nothing, still finds the audacity to meddle with the lives of other human beings.

Politicians aren't expected to know how to do all things. As Clint Eastwood would say, "A man's got to know his limitations." Politicians should have enough respect for others, though, so as to allow each citizen to choose their own destiny, to create opportunity, or to seize opportunity when they see it.

And for the rest of us – we need to quit putting cowards in charge of our destiny.