3 ms·
> But basically every government intervention leads to some abominable result. Some interventions do, some don't. Without environmental legislation, for exampl
by heurisko 5y ago
> But basically every government intervention leads to some abominable result.
Some interventions do, some don't. Without environmental legislation, for example, companies would export their negative externalities, e.g. pumping sewage into water systems, onto the rest of us.
Saying that, however, there have been some bad housing policies in the UK, for example, "Help to Buy" which could just as easily be called "Help to Sell".
- noduerme 5y agoThat's true. But that's of a different category. Governments should regulate the public sphere and public resources. That benefits individuals. Who in a democracy ostensibly are the ones who vote in the government. Notably, authoritarian governments which don't respect individuals don't spend much time on environmental regulation either. Market manipulation or redistribution of individual (not corporate) wealth by governments -- as opposed to regulation -- is always a bad idea because (a) the people making those calls from within the government are getting rich by doing so, directly siphoning wealth from the citizenry by exercising inside knowledge and the power to tweak a market, and (b) those actions directly harm the golden goose that produces the economic uplift the government needs to survive - that is, the individual in the middle class.