Moved from D1 forum

[Kevin]

So, while not perfect, with government playing the watchdog to reign in corporate abuses, the system works. On the other hand, the government can get over protective as well, as I've discussed before with bad legislation, like the Consumer Protection and Safety Improvement Act of 2008 which wastefully forces everyone to test and retest everything and forces hand made, cottage, and small businesses undue hardships.

That is the key. You need the right amount of regulation, because most people agree that unchecked the abuses can be severe, while overchecked the system can collapse. While many, possibly most, of those situations that require regulation will self correct if left alone, that correction period can be very socially detrimental.

Monopolies are some of the more frequently policed, and most of the economic theory I've learned shows clearly that a monopoly is nearly always bad for everyone, except the monopoly holder. So there is great motivation to become a monopoly and there are markets with such high barriers to entry that a natural correction can be nearly impossible. I haven't studied it in depth, but the cursory info that I have seems to indicate that the break of the of the Bell phone company was a good thing.

Tuning regulation is not an exact science either, and is not universally agreed on. With our two party, winner take all, political system things can easily be shoved from one extreme to the other as well.

Part of the issue with this discussion in general is that political and economic systems can impact each other significantly and as several earlier posts in this thread show, you have untagle some of that at times, or if like me your understanding of both topics is only middling, learn some of it.