| It's not untrue. It depends on the industry and circumstances. But to make a blanket statement either way ends up in a misrepresentation of whether deregulation is good or bad. For example there have been numerous financial crisis over the years, generally in the wake of the financial industry deregulation. The deregulation of carriers in 1996 (Telecomm Act) helped spur some competition within known telecommunication products (mainly wireline) but was unknowing of the new and emerging markets. Which is part of the problem with deregulation of moving markets. I think, however, many have a perspective that deregulated industry often creates monopoly. Healthcare, telecommunication, search, retail, etc are all monopolized by a select few. Is there still small, heel-biter competition? Sure. But DigitalOcean isn't a worry for AWS, GCP or Azure. It's a facade of competition in the "open" market. As stated: > There is a reason anti-deregulation screeds focus on isolated incidents and are heavy on narrative. Objective views of numbers and long term trends make the situation look far more rosey. This isn't the the case of regulation strawman argument. Financial markets were plundered by greed in 2008 due to deregulation. That isn't an "isolated incident". Almost nobody spent time behind bars for the actions of those who abused it. And we know that it wouldn't have taken place with proper regulation and oversight. Regulation of safety is paramount. Auto manufacturers didn't buy into providing the 3 point seat belt as standard equipment until they were forced. Deregulation isn't a silver bullet, but in many cases it plays out as a zero sum game. Many people lose and many people gain. It's often a vehicle to shift power and wealth as history so directly has shown us. |
To use financial deregulation as an example. Yes, the 2008 crisis was bad. But on the whole, are people still worse off? When my parents bought a house in 1989, their interest rate was multiples higher than I’m paying now. One of the things that caused interest rates to collapse was securitization. Moreover, the boom times of the 1990s was also partly due to the financial system. It was deregulated banks that provided the private capital for the first tech boom. And, this website covers an industry that resists regulation at every turn—its bankrolled by investors largely free of regulations applicable to investors managing retail deposits, and numerous companies stay private to avoid public company regulations. What is the net cost-benefit from financial deregulation over the last 30 years, accounting for both benefits and costs? Pro-regulation folks never look at it in those terms.
There is no doubt that deregulated markets are leas predictable than regulated ones. Regulation can smooth out the boom-bust cycle. Thus looking at busts, instead of long-term trends, is a convenient way for pro-regulation folks to distort the overall impact of deregulatory measures.