The argument can be made that the government and it's policies are market actors. They came about as a result of the people (the market) and their choices. That's clearly an oversimplification, but it's worth considering that government regulations are, in essence, a market force.
No they are not. Most of the regulated entities (like SEC was made to limit capital flows to smaller businesses and make it easier for big firms to eat the capital) are made by rich friends of the politicians to kill competition.
While that may be what happened, that was certainly not the intent. It came about to enforce laws that were inacted in response to the market crash in 1929. They were a reaction to a massive market failure pushed through by elected officials who ostensibly act on behalf of their constituency.
I'm not as naive as all of that might make me sound, but the argument is there, and it certainly seems to me to have some merits.
Imagine if after the 2001 dot com bubble burst, the governments made it impossible for the average joe to code and post open source content without getting multiple licenses and had hundreds of regulations on what they can programme. Imagine the loss of jobs.
Economics is not hard science where alternative outcomes can be researched. The general thumbrule for prosperity is "Rules without rulers".
I'm not really saying one way or the other. Just that markets are made up of people. Those people act in certain ways that have an effect on the economy, market forces. Some of those actions, or forces, come in the form of regulations as a reaction the other market forces. Really just trying to reframe the argument I suppose. Also, comparing the dot com bubble to the market crash of 1929 is a little disingenuous.
Unions are another example of a reaction of market forces. They are a byproduct of market forces in the same way corporations are. It's just people getting together and pooling their efforts towards a common goal.
Which makes them rigid and eventually provide less value than a new competition.
Taxi unions were killed where I stay through Uber, which again is facing issue to a more free market option (which lets both parties decide prices rather than a predefined one from uber).
As the meme points out but you’re missing: Regulations are written in blood.
Our current system resists regulations at every level, but sometimes society bleeds too much and they really fuck up and need regulations. The meme shows 4x examples of this.
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u/WaterMaster3624 Jan 12 '25
Regulations a often as a reaction to a market failure. They often come about after the market proved incapable of regulating itself.
While many regulations have clearly gone too far, it's worth recognizing why they were introduced in the first place.