Why Regulation Is Essential
Share this article
ADVERTISEMENT
(comments below)
Comments
Comments
-
yet another plea for the nanny state, eh?
🙂
-
In a related story, California has banned foie gras:
-
the neo libertarians would tell you to pays your money and makes your choices.
If a bus company has cheap fares but a “sketchy” reputation – it’s not the govt’s role to “protect” you.
companies with bad reputations will eventually go broke and companies with good reputations will prosper.
we don’t need no stinkin govmint…
-
Nobody of sound mind has ever claimed that all regulation should be abolished.
The prohibition against murder is a form of regulation.
The question was, is and always will be the extent to which the government should regulate.
The question of regulation in Virginia was best analyzed by a column in the hibernating Virginia Tomorrow blog written by Barnie Day. The erudite and articulate Mr. Day entitled his blog, “Contemplating Suicide and Can’t Make Up Your Mind: Unload the Gun Before Reading This. Beyond possessing an obvious sense of humor, Mr Day is also known to possess a center – left political philosophy which included staunch opposition to Bob McDonnell as governor.
Here is the column:
-
Dear Barnie Day:
Please start blogging again! This kind of writing is sorely missed:
“How many pages of regulations do you think it takes to govern a “business-friendly” state like Virginia? A thousand? Two thousand? Three? Four?
Close to five.
Nearly five thousand pages.
(I checked the Bible this morning. That gang of regulators covers a lot of ground. Only took them 1140 pages.) “.
-
Peter is chasing a will o’ the whisp, putting the advocates of “unfettered” capitalism in their places. Except… outside of Ron Paul rallies, there aren’t any advocates of unfettered capitalism. Nearly everyone supports government regulation to protect the public health and safety, at least in concept. (Clearly, as DJRippert points out, there is such a thing as regulatory overreach.)
But making sure that inter-city bus drivers are pumping themselves up with No-Doze before getting behind the wheel seems like a perfectly legitimate regulation.
-
Glad to See bacon agrees safety is important and should be regulated
-
The tricky part is deciding *how much* regulation. And that requires a rational assessment of costs and benefits. Unfortunately, that assessment often gets polluted by ideology and self interest, so the answers aren’t always clear cut. But at least in concept, health and safety are appropriate goals of regulation.
-
-
well you can ask the four families who lost loved ones in that bus wreck what kind of regulation they’d like to see……
that’s how a lot of regulation actually comes about… including really bad regulation.
-
Thanks LarryG,
I think a little moral clarity is a good idea here. And Barney Day’s witticisms about regulation are really out of place when you are talking about a few dozen dead bus riders and their relatives. Funny, but when I blogged about the F-burg crash a year ago, You Know Who rang in with his own post about how this all a great free market opportunity.
Some days I wonder why I bother with this. -
don’t wonder… just DO! we need the counter view! Bacon has got himself on a slippery slope with that libertarian thing…!!!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.