[driverdan]

That may be the intent of regulation but what ends up happening is that companies shape the regulation in a way to benefit the incumbents and push out competition.

The government should stop granting companies privileges and let the free market work.

[xnull1guest]

I absolutely acknowledge that bad regulation is a problem, and wish more liberal minded folk would as well. But the problem is again not a binary one: the 'free' market also favors monopolies and incumbents and without a system of punishment and enforcement it is fact (historical and current) that companies will do everything in their power to externalize costs, fix their own success and seek rent.

So it's more a matter of creating 'good' regulation and designing markets (think cap-and-trade) that meet all criteria. It's not easy and you are right to be skeptical of industry's current role in designing its own regulation.