[ericd]

Disagree with the last one, one of government’s main responsibilities is to regulate peoples’ externalities so they don’t infringe on other peoples’ rights. Noise and pollution especially negatively affect neighbors.

It’d be great if this was done parametrically (Eg setting max noise output at your property boundaries, particulate output, etc,), but I guess it’s been historically more convenient to do it via broad zoning instead. Japan’s max-use zoning seems like a good compromise.