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> The strongly libertarian/anti-regulation folks really don’t seem to have an answer for this. And it’s where there whole philosophy falls down because it so fu

> The strongly libertarian/anti-regulation folks really don’t seem to have an answer for this. And it’s where there whole philosophy falls down because it so fundamentally ignores human behavior so it’ll never work. Sure they do. "The invisible hand of the market"! Which requires customers to have perfect knowledge of the market to work. Somehow they can't fathom that someone who is willing to harm others in order to make a profit might also be willing to act dishonestly and commit fraud in order to make even more profit. The other argument is, "Well, it would happen anyways with regulation!" Which is true, but, just like the "bad regulation" and "regulatory capture" arguments, effectvely boils down to saying, "I don't need to go to the doctor because I'm going to die anyways."

antidesitter 8y ago
Which requires customers to have perfect knowledge of the market to work. How so? It’s precisely because no one has perfect knowledge that markets beat central planning, as Hayek articulated in The Use of Knowledge in Society.
- jtmcmc 8y ago
  when you have strong information asymmetry between purchaser and seller the market can become unsafe. These information asymmetries occur in highly specialized areas like...medicine where it is extremely difficult if not impossible for the consumer to be able to judge what is best. Which is why regulation is good and useful. It recognizes that we can not all be expert in all areas.
sudomake 8y ago
"After a few buildings and bridges fall down, the free market will punish those developers that built them"