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Ace, can you at least acknowledge that free-ish markets tend to produce situations where participants have substantial motivation to work counter to the best interests of society?
I can acknowledge that government intrusion is frequently heavy-handed and counter-productive. This seems to be inherent and why industry should do its best to self-regulate. Many industries do self regulate. Many don't. And when necessary, government intrusion exists to intentionally restrict certain kinds of growth.
For example, government regulation right now is limiting the growth of the market for cigarettes and alcohol among minors. I'm fine with this. The government is also limiting the toy market by placing rules on what sort of chemicals can be used in toy production. I'm fine with this.
I don't buy into the idea that the wisdom of the market is always sound when it comes to the well being of humanity. Regulations frequently arise when industries so egregiously fuck up that even the largely corrupt class of politicians who run the country have to get off their worthless asses and pretend to care about their constituents.
Where there aren't compelling reasons to inhibit market growth, I can't imagine you'd find any large group of people willing to regulate capriciously (though I recognize that the folks who stand to gain from the exploitation of certain markets might differ in opinion on the need for regulation from the people in these markets who stand to be exploited).
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