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Snark aside, that doesn't dispute the thesis that regulations tend to favor incumbents. Some regulations are good. Some regulations are bad. Some regulations are smart. Some regulations are dumb. Reasonable people can disagree on the quality or intelligence of a given regulation, or its impact on a given industry, but that doesn't change that most regulations do tend to make products more expensive to manufacture and by proxy, more expensive to buy. In Europe, if you want to sell eggs, you're required not to wash them or get them wet, because doing so erodes the natural coating that protects them from diseases. This is a regulation implemented to prevent salmonella. In America, if you want to sell eggs, you're required to wash them in water at least 90 degrees, to make sure that they're clean, then rinse them with a chemically infused spray, then because you've got them wet, they need to be thoroughly dried to prevent bacterial growth. Further, because you've now washed and dried them, removing the natural protective coating, they need to be refrigerated in transit, at the store, and at home. Both regulations are imposed to defend against Salmonella, and both are apparently quite effective, but the American regulations in play require the purchase of (conservatively) thousands of dollars in washing, sanitizing and drying equipment, and at least a partnership with a refrigerated trucking company. If you're selling the eggs in California, there's the additional requirement that the eggs were laid by free-range hens, which of course increases the amount of land required to raise the chickens upon, which of course makes it harder to prevent and protect the hens against predators. Like I said, reasonable people can disagree on any given regulation, but it's hard to make the claim that egg regulations in America are more effective than those in Europe, or that the American regulatory environment doesn't make it the egg business a more capital intensive affair. |
Not only that, even auto safety regulations do favor incumbents. There were far more new independent car companies created before the 1970s when the safety regulations were passed, and they were often created by small groups of people rather than huge established companies.
It's possible that the safety improvement is worth that cost, but that doesn't mean the cost isn't still there.
When we start talking about other industries where the result isn't literally a matter of life and death, it becomes much more likely that the cost outweighs the benefit. You're essentially talking about destroying competition -- the same competition that keeps companies from doing things you don't like.
If you want to pass regulations that destroy competition, those regulations had better prevent companies from doing more evil on net than competitive pressure does. Which is a pretty high bar.