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> Government regulation is the answer, but it's not being applied efficiently here Do you have any examples of Government Regulations that are applied efficien
by vuln 3y ago
> Government regulation is the answer, but it's not being applied efficiently here
Do you have any examples of Government Regulations that are applied efficiently and do not cause harm to any individuals?
- Analemma_ 3y agoYou are demonstrating the exact problem the OP is complaining about. "Does not cause harm to any individuals" is an impossible standard to meet, and should not be weighed against "do nothing, and eventually cause a catastrophe for which there is no clear agent to blame".
- l33t233372 3y agoI’m not sure where you make the leap to “do not cause harm to any individuals.” This thread is about managing and reducing harm in places where having “no harm” (whatever that means) isn’t an option.
- ncallaway 3y ago> and do not cause harm to any individuals Your bar for a government regulation is really “not a single individual is harmed”? That’s insane, and almost exactly the problem anonporridge was describing. Almost every government regulation harms someone, in that it almost always is limiting the actions available to someone. To answer your question: no, there is no such regulation, but it’s not relevant, because I think your metric is atrocious.
- foxyv 3y ago> and do not cause harm to any individuals You're moving the bar a little there. There will always be harm to individuals due to the law of unintended consequences. However, government regulation is really good at preventing a "Tragedy of the Commons." For instance, regulations on CFC emissions hurt a lot of individuals. However, they prevented a much greater tragedy. Removing lead from car exhaust marginally hurt an entire generation, while improving the lives of the next by orders of magnitude. Other examples: Building codes, Car Safety, Fair Labor Standards Act, Food and Drug Regulations.
- c54 3y agoSocial security (has flaws but basically solved the widespread pre social security problem of poverty amongst the elderly) Food safety, leaded gas and paint, restricted chemicals lists (for safety reason, less of a fan of drug bans). Bank deposit reserve requirements. Obamacare. Antitrust legislation. Seat belts (extremely controversial at the time, people protested the loss of their freedoms etc etc). Alaska’s Permanent Fund. Norway’s government pension fund.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoI'm assuming that taxes, fees, and other standardized costs are not considered harm, as well as other such incidental costs, otherwise no, nothing can be done by anyone that does not cause harm to someone else at the margin. Mandating that the US postal service deliver to every address at a single price. This results in an efficient single price, efficiencies of scale that private carriers don't even have, and does not harm anyone outside of the externalities that would already exist for mail delivery regardless of who was doing the delivering.