My very general response to that very general statement is: choices and decisions can be made collectively as well. At their best, regulations ARE exactly that

My very general response to that very general statement is: choices and decisions can be made collectively as well. At their best, regulations ARE exactly that - bunch of us getting together and saying "well THAT sure sucked; let's not make THAT mistake again; let's do better choices in the future". It's us saying that we are capable of learning and we don't have to make every.stupid.mistake.over.and.over.again individually. We will probably also agree very quickly on what regulations are at their very worst, or even at their median / mediocre! :). And then it becomes an intelligent discussion on where we each draw the line and what are good ratios and compromises. But I have limited respect for drawing the line at either plus or minus infinity and pretending it's a meaningful statement or a good principle to live by :-/ [if your post was sarcasm, apologies/nm; easy to miss those online]