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by komali2 45 days ago
Have you ever tried to regulate an unregulated industry preying upon a population?

Look what it took to wrangle the cigarette industry. Look how unfettered gambling is ripping through the USA.

Or look at industries pre-regulation. Meat, building construction, medicine...

At minimum we have as much evidence that "the market" is capable of being as bad as "bad regulation."

1 comments

Gambling might be ripping though the US, maybe. But it's far from unfettered.

> Or look at industries pre-regulation. Meat, building construction, medicine...

You might like to read about what economists call 'Normal Goods': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_good

> In economics, a normal good is a type of a good for which consumers increase their demand due to an increase in income, unlike inferior goods, for which the opposite is observed. When there is an increase in a person's income, for example due to a wage rise, a good for which the demand rises due to the wage increase, is referred as a normal good. Conversely, the demand for normal goods declines when the income decreases, for example due to a wage decrease or layoffs.

Health and safety are normal goods. As people get richer, they demand more of them.

That's far too cynical. A normal good is caviar, or wine. Health and safety are human rights. Not everything should be commoditized.