Number of pages in the Federal Register, 1936 (16p) – 2014 (80,000p)

Just based on the name, I assume it's an anti-government, pro-gold, "frontier spirit", etc. site. ... And yup, the first page confirms that in spades.

The graph is probably there to suggest that the number of rules that we live under is overbearing, and nothing like the old good old days, when freedom reigned.

As a note, "The first issue of the Federal Register was published on March 16, 1936. In 1946 the Administrative Procedure Act required agencies to publish more information related to their rulemaking documents in the Federal Register." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Register

The Federal Register exists because previously there was no central place to find executive orders and other rules and regulations. That is, they existed, but "even individuals working at the highest levels of government found it difficult or impossible to keep track of all of them". See http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/the-federal-registe... .

The history also suggests that the role of the Federal Register changed over time, so looking at the simple page count is a poor measure. For example, in the 1970s the publications changed to reduce "bureaucratese", and in 1974 the Privacy Act meant that "agencies were required to publish in the Federal Register digests of their systems of records containing personal information about individuals."

We could certainly decrease the size of the Federal Register if we removed laws like that. But would it be worthwhile?