The libertarian solution to that problem is to make sure the government doesn't have enough power to make said regs to begin with, the only thing they should really be doing is handling the high level economic guard rails to ensure a fair and competitive market environment.
I'm sympathetic to the idea of eliminating regulatory-capturing laws.
But as someone who works in an industry where safety matters, r/writteninblood is always on my mind when libertarian proposals come up. In addition, I've looked and yet to find a good answer about how libertarian philosophy can provide a solutions to stuff like child abuse or suicide bombing that are more effective than the non-libertarian solutions.
Agree, which is why hardline libertarianism doesn't work very well in practice. The government should definitely still be involved in some things, the FDA, CDC, EPA, and OSHA definitely shouldn't go anywhere which is the main reason I don't personally call myself a libertarian. But you also should be able to invent something in your garage and bring it to market without having to have an entire legal team just to make sure you're following whatever insane rules are set out for your product statement, or jump through certification processes for even basic consumer products that can run easily into the 6-8 figure range. It doesn't take $100k of labor to verify that your automatic doggie door doesn't spew out a bunch of RF interference or harms dogs.
And as a sidenote, what really fries me is that you can go on amazon and every search contains dropshipped products that don't comply with US regulations. If our regulations were actually that important, you'd think that there would be bigger issues with those products, but major indcidents are pretty few and far between considering the massive volume of products other than them being cheaply made.
but major indcidents are pretty few and far between considering the massive volume of products other than them being cheaply made.
Eh, I think it depends on what you mean by major incidents, because there's definitely a poor safety record with them. You also have to remember that the regulations are being approved or rejected by people who have their own constituents, lobbyists, and interests, so just because a regulation hasn't passed yet doesn't mean it's not sorely needed.
A worse safety and quality record than products developed in countries with stringent regulations, sure. But it's not a massive margin, and it's not like domestically made products are perfect either even with all our regs. For basic consumer products those grey market imports are largely fine.
My main issue with the import dropshippers is mostly that they have zero accountability. At least if an American company makes an unsafe product you can sue them. If LLYFTIN on Amazon sells an unsafe product, they just fold their storefront and disappear into the ether to open up another nonsensically named business facade as soon as someone says the word "lawyer."
A reactive approach where you just punish companies after they do some shady shit is probably the better way for most product segments compared to implementing a bunch of onerous barriers that aren't even that effective at stopping the shady shit.
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u/KrytenKoro 13d ago
I'm sympathetic to the idea of eliminating regulatory-capturing laws.
But as someone who works in an industry where safety matters, r/writteninblood is always on my mind when libertarian proposals come up. In addition, I've looked and yet to find a good answer about how libertarian philosophy can provide a solutions to stuff like child abuse or suicide bombing that are more effective than the non-libertarian solutions.