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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (8427)	6/7/2011 3:10:11 PM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13056

"Product specs and regulation are not the same thing." Sure they are. Not even close. Totally different concepts. They overlap (some specs are set by regulations, some regulations set product specs), but so do "flying things" and "mammals" (for example bats), which hardly means a cat flys or that birds and helicopters are mammals. But the last point is a problem with our political system, not inherently something wrong with regulation. Its not just our political system its any political system. Kings and tyrants still play to the people (and when they don't it can be even worse, just setting up their own whims or those of their cronies as law). Other democratic republics have the same sorts of special interest problems that we do. The majority of regulation are very good Not just wrong, but crazy wrong. after being massaged year after year after year Often they aren't, and when they are politics is the driver of the change. It can make what was a pretty good regulation in to a bad one, it doesn't just lead to improvement. The majority are not truly horrible. The system works good enough that it can often weed out the worst of the worst (ones that are both horrible for their situation, and effect a lot of people in obvious negative ways), but in most cases most people won't even know about harmful regulation, or won't recognize the problems it causes since if it imposes a cost on them most people feel it indirectly. The costs are often diffuse and indirect, even if large in total, the benefits are often concentrated and more visible (at least to those they benefit, if smaller. The interests that do benefit have ample reason to campaign to create, keep, or expand such regulations, while those who experience the diffuse harm, probably don't even know it.