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Is there a single case in history where "government should regulate [xyz sector]" hasn't turned into government passing laws that were ghostwritten by the large

by paxys 3y ago

Is there a single case in history where "government should regulate [xyz sector]" hasn't turned into government passing laws that were ghostwritten by the largest players in that sector to benefit themselves?

itishappy 3y ago
The EPA seems to doing good work with things like leaded gas, CFCs, PFASs, etc. I feel like our atomic energy agencies are pretty above-board too.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  What you're really getting at is that sometimes the regulation of a sector is captured by the largest players in a different sector, e.g. fossil fuel energy companies want regulation of nuclear power to make it cost prohibitive. The EPA is a similar story. It justifies itself by banning leaded gas etc., but then doesn't do only that, and soon certain domestic industries are wiped out by environmental impact studies and other administrative overhead. The companies in those industries don't care because they just move their facilities offshore. The ones who are already foreign companies or were going to do that anyway may even prefer it, because then the rules eliminate competition from domestic operations in the US. And similar to the case of nuclear, environmental rules are often abused by NIMBYs to inhibit construction rather than merely ensure that it isn't harming the environment.
pjerem 3y ago
Tobacco ?
ethbr1 3y ago
Antitrust First sale doctrine Telecom Airlines Food safety Transportation safety Environmental safety Fish and wildlife
- janice1999 3y ago
  Occupational Safety and Health laws
- EA-3167 3y ago
  Labor laws are a huge example too, we didn't emerge from an age of child labor into the modern era because of regulatory capture.
- from-nibly 3y ago
  Any links to the cases of the following and how they weren't part of regulatory capture?
  - ethbr1 3y ago
    Is there a specific one you're interested in?
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  The old antitrust laws weren't, but they've been narrowed so much over time through court decisions that they're no longer effective, as evidenced by all the industries dominated by less than a dozen major companies. The first sale doctrine is the thing the industry keeps chipping away at with anti-circumvention laws and ebook licensing etc. Telecoms are probably the textbook case of regulatory capture. You should be able to start a phone company by installing Asterisk on a VM or installing a cellular base station on your roof and filing a form to get permanently assigned a block of phone numbers for a nominal one-time fee. Needless to say that you can't and the incumbents like it that way. A lot of aspects of airlines are actually not that heavily regulated, it generally operates as a fairly competitive market. The parts that are the most regulated are the parts where the 737 MAX kind of things are happening, and then we're back to "incumbents like the rules that way because they make it cost prohibitive for smaller competitors to exist." Food safety is the thing where this happens: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5298116 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=529811... Also, things involving Monsanto in general. Transportation safety is pretty thoroughly captured by automakers. Tens of thousands of people die in car crashes every year, it's one of the leading causes of death, and we make dumb responses, like fining people who don't wear seat belts (no effect on automakers) instead of actually effective responses like building more housing near jobs so people drive fewer miles or don't need as many cars (obvious negative effect on automakers). Environmental safety rules don't seem to apply to oil companies. Fish and wildlife rules are commonly structured to give large incumbents the right to harvest the disproportionate share. Also, this is one of the cases where the industry wants the rules, because over-fishing is a harm to them rather than an externality their industry imposes on someone else.

by paxys 3y ago

itishappy 3y ago

The EPA seems to doing good work with things like leaded gas, CFCs, PFASs, etc. I feel like our atomic energy agencies are pretty above-board too.

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
What you're really getting at is that sometimes the regulation of a sector is captured by the largest players in a different sector, e.g. fossil fuel energy companies want regulation of nuclear power to make it cost prohibitive. The EPA is a similar story. It justifies itself by banning leaded gas etc., but then doesn't do only that, and soon certain domestic industries are wiped out by environmental impact studies and other administrative overhead. The companies in those industries don't care because they just move their facilities offshore. The ones who are already foreign companies or were going to do that anyway may even prefer it, because then the rules eliminate competition from domestic operations in the US. And similar to the case of nuclear, environmental rules are often abused by NIMBYs to inhibit construction rather than merely ensure that it isn't harming the environment.

pjerem 3y ago

Tobacco ?

ethbr1 3y ago

Antitrust First sale doctrine Telecom Airlines Food safety Transportation safety Environmental safety Fish and wildlife

janice1999 3y ago
Occupational Safety and Health laws
EA-3167 3y ago
Labor laws are a huge example too, we didn't emerge from an age of child labor into the modern era because of regulatory capture.
from-nibly 3y ago
Any links to the cases of the following and how they weren't part of regulatory capture?
- ethbr1 3y ago
  Is there a specific one you're interested in?
AnthonyMouse 3y ago
The old antitrust laws weren't, but they've been narrowed so much over time through court decisions that they're no longer effective, as evidenced by all the industries dominated by less than a dozen major companies. The first sale doctrine is the thing the industry keeps chipping away at with anti-circumvention laws and ebook licensing etc. Telecoms are probably the textbook case of regulatory capture. You should be able to start a phone company by installing Asterisk on a VM or installing a cellular base station on your roof and filing a form to get permanently assigned a block of phone numbers for a nominal one-time fee. Needless to say that you can't and the incumbents like it that way. A lot of aspects of airlines are actually not that heavily regulated, it generally operates as a fairly competitive market. The parts that are the most regulated are the parts where the 737 MAX kind of things are happening, and then we're back to "incumbents like the rules that way because they make it cost prohibitive for smaller competitors to exist." Food safety is the thing where this happens: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5298116 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=529811... Also, things involving Monsanto in general. Transportation safety is pretty thoroughly captured by automakers. Tens of thousands of people die in car crashes every year, it's one of the leading causes of death, and we make dumb responses, like fining people who don't wear seat belts (no effect on automakers) instead of actually effective responses like building more housing near jobs so people drive fewer miles or don't need as many cars (obvious negative effect on automakers). Environmental safety rules don't seem to apply to oil companies. Fish and wildlife rules are commonly structured to give large incumbents the right to harvest the disproportionate share. Also, this is one of the cases where the industry wants the rules, because over-fishing is a harm to them rather than an externality their industry imposes on someone else.