Quote:
Originally Posted by r3p1v
Right now though, I think regulation, to a normal degree, is a must. We absolutely need agencies like the FDA. And people are stupid, so they should be protected from making stupid decisions that eventually affect everybody. I don't think businesses should be able to crash the entire system. I think that if we had adequate regulation this whole mess could have been prevented.
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Hopefully, you will be able to move beyond this. Regulation is always ex post-facto. It doesn't stop problems, it just tries to prevent them from happening twice. And even at that, it fails.
Look at the drug war. I think Nixon said it would be won by '74 or '76. How is that going? The FDA? Helps drive up the price of medications, and limits availability to needed experimental drugs. Also is starting to interfere with (cheap) natural product medicine.
Regulation and bailouts are socialism for the rich. Who do you think writes Chris Dodd's legislation? It's a known fact that his lobbyists write it for him, and he just puts his name to it.
The market is the sword of damocles over the heads of would be monopolists and rip off artists. What the government does with regulation, is convince you that if you let them hold the sword, they will drop it at the right time, but when the right time comes, they convince you to give a reprieve (bailout).
Don't get me wrong. This is an excellent racket. If you can get in on it.