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We should be looking at where it's exacerbating inequality and come up with intelligent, data-driven solutions. Many people act as if the concept of any type of

We should be looking at where it's exacerbating inequality and come up with intelligent, data-driven solutions. Many people act as if the concept of any type of government regulation or non-market-driven solution is incapable of having a positive impact, but I have seen no compelling evidence to prove that. You can hand-pick any number of past bad regulations with negative outcomes, but for every one you show me I can show you a regulation we're deeply reliant on. Regulations are a tool, they can be designed well or poorly, and we can examine them analytically. Even if you truly believed that government intervention of any kind necessarily must introduce inefficiencies, I'd hope you'd agree that economic efficiency is not always the exclusive good that we should be aiming for. Ideally we want a balance of economic efficiency and the overall health, equality, and well-being of the populace. The argument that when the economy improves everyone does better is blatantly false, and we have data to indicate that. Moreover, economic inequality itself can destroy markets. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/8/16112368/piketty-saez-zucman-income-growth-inequality-stagnation-chart https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/8/16112368/pi...

malvosenior 9y ago
And I've seen no compelling evidence that regulation adds anything to technological progress. In fact I've personally experienced quite the opposite. Have you ever worked on a global tech property? The EU and Germany in particular have some pretty onerous regulations regarding content that can be published (even on user generated content services). You will waste real man hours complying with these regulations. You'll also forgo legitimate innovation in favor of this mollycoddling busy work. I don't want to ask permission from the state to build something and I surely don't want them involved with my endeavor once I get going. You can experience these effects first hand if you try to build something innovative and it takes off.
- aalleavitch 9y ago
  My dad's company is an international medical device manufacturer and I am keenly aware of the regulatory hoops (some of which I will even admit are legitimately unfair and should be reformed!) that he has to jump through and the sheer amount of money it costs his company to make sure they're complying with regulations. It, without a doubt, is an economic burden on them. I still don't want someone dying because a faulty medical device was used on them. I think that the trade-off between ease of new innovation and public safety is a decision we have to all make collectively, and I think that the necessarily massive gulf between consumer and producer information necessitates that government be involved. Market solutions are bad for situations where there is wide information asymmetry.
- pesmhey 9y ago
  You could also experience these effects if you were trying to build weapons. Or a monopoly. Or lots of things. The reason you haven't seen compelling evidence that regulation adds anything to technological progress is because it doesn't, almost by definition. Regulation serves to protect citizens - entrenched special interests too. That protection means funding space races and intense times of technological progress, or dampening an out-of-control feedback loop of wealth/power accumulation, or a bunch of things in between.

malvosenior 9y ago

And I've seen no compelling evidence that regulation adds anything to technological progress. In fact I've personally experienced quite the opposite. Have you ever worked on a global tech property? The EU and Germany in particular have some pretty onerous regulations regarding content that can be published (even on user generated content services). You will waste real man hours complying with these regulations. You'll also forgo legitimate innovation in favor of this mollycoddling busy work. I don't want to ask permission from the state to build something and I surely don't want them involved with my endeavor once I get going. You can experience these effects first hand if you try to build something innovative and it takes off.

aalleavitch 9y ago
My dad's company is an international medical device manufacturer and I am keenly aware of the regulatory hoops (some of which I will even admit are legitimately unfair and should be reformed!) that he has to jump through and the sheer amount of money it costs his company to make sure they're complying with regulations. It, without a doubt, is an economic burden on them. I still don't want someone dying because a faulty medical device was used on them. I think that the trade-off between ease of new innovation and public safety is a decision we have to all make collectively, and I think that the necessarily massive gulf between consumer and producer information necessitates that government be involved. Market solutions are bad for situations where there is wide information asymmetry.
pesmhey 9y ago
You could also experience these effects if you were trying to build weapons. Or a monopoly. Or lots of things. The reason you haven't seen compelling evidence that regulation adds anything to technological progress is because it doesn't, almost by definition. Regulation serves to protect citizens - entrenched special interests too. That protection means funding space races and intense times of technological progress, or dampening an out-of-control feedback loop of wealth/power accumulation, or a bunch of things in between.