13 hours ago, weedy said:government needs to act more as a force for good; not to 'get out of the way'.
Its completely evident that without regulation and enforcement business will inevitably take advantage to the detriment of the public
I have to agree. What many proponents of "less" regulation seem to be in favor of is no regulations that will interfere in any way with what they personally want to do. Hypocritically, as in the honey capping example, those same individuals will sometimes be in favor of regulation that will give them a competitive advantage. I am sure many people honestly believe that a given regulation is unnecessary and in their particular case it may not be, but that doesn't mean it isn't still needed to protect the public from someone else who has less common sense (or is less scrupulous). That sort of thing can be very frustrating for some, but it also may be a necessary evil.
What we need to focus on is making and reforming regulations so that they are both effective and reasonable. There is always a little more we could do to improve safety, but at a certain point the incremental gains in safety are very small relative to the burden of the regulation. We seem to have lost the ability to reach a well reasoned compromise. Instead issues are framed as black vs white and us against them. I believe in most cases the best compromise will leave neither side entirely happy but no one seems to be willing to compromise in any meaningful way - certainly not whichever side currently has the upper hand in Washington.
The notion that markets will police themselves is ludicrous, Upton Sinclair must be rolling over in his grave.
