As a student of economics, I am quite aware of the phenomena of market failure. However, the question to be asked before imposing a new regulation is not "is th

As a student of economics, I am quite aware of the phenomena of market failure. However, the question to be asked before imposing a new regulation is not "is there a market failure?. Rather, we should ask "is the new regulation likely to do more good than harm?" The central insight of the Public Choice school of economics is that governments are composed of people, and like all people they respond to incentives. Public Choice is widely respected in the Economics profession, though it is generally ignored in public debates. Rather, people have a tendency to assume that the government is composed of perfect angels who will optimally address whatever externalities they are tasked with fixing. There is room for a "good governance" libertarianism, composed solely of economic arguments and with no moral arguments, that would oppose more than 50% of what modern governments do.