T.C.O.W. 1: Is Capitalism the justification for Corporatism..

[mrstickball]

Rath said:

HappySqurriel said:

If you release a drug onto the market without adequate testing you will face a massive class-action lawsuit and lose billions of dollars. If you dig an oil well that causes environmental damage you will either face a substantial fee to clean the land imposed by the land-owner or face substantial negative coverage due to the influence of environmental groups.

Realistically, I don't think anyone is arguing for the elimination of all government regulation, but the vast majority of government regulation is completely unnecessary and primarily designed to protect the interest of large powerful incumbents.

Yes the company will go bankrupt and the directors will go to jail. Will that make up for the lost lives or the environmental damage?

And people would try and cut corners if they could. Even with regulation they do their best to.

Yes, it will. Other companies will take note of the punishment visited on the bankrupt business and jailed directors, and change their practices to respect the environment.

For example, if during the BP oil spill, there were no liability caps on what BP would have to pay out, don't you think that the threat of losing hundreds of billions of dollars (potentially) would cause them to respond to the crisis much quicker? What about Exxon and others operating out of the region - do you not believe that they would go over their practices to ensure they were of the highest standards?

We've made great strides in efficiency and respect to the environment without government mandates. When the government forces compliance on companies, it creates unintended consequences. Businesses then have to work inside a mandated framework, which may leave out potential gains of efficency in other areas of the company.

For example, I use the analogy of cars very often. Due to the massive amount of compliance required to build, own, and operate a car manufacturer in the US, development of new car companies is virtually unheard of, outside of something like the Tesla Roadster, which was founded by a billionaire. Comparatively, if restrictions on factories, manufacturing, and safety requirements of road-worthy vehicles was lessened, we may see innovative, efficient cars brought to market faster because they didn't have to spend tens of millions of dollars on compliance. Instead, we have an American triopoly which has existed in the US car manufacturing sphere for almost a century.

 

Comparatively, look at a nearly unregulated industry such as computers. We find incredible advancements in technology and energy efficencies without govenment mandates. One wonders how stunted computers would be if the government put arbitrary limits on what manufacturers could put into a PC.