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U.S. Chemical Safety Board could be eliminated

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386 points z991 | 4 comments | 23 Jun 25 23:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.769s | source
1. hliyan ◴[24 Jun 25 02:56 UTC] No.44362501[source]▶
I think we will soon have to confront serious, real world proof that an unregulated free market is not ultimately self-regulating. Control systems without upper bounds (e.g. shareholder value / profit maximization) are prone to feedback loops and oscillations. And an oscillating system cannot be judged in its entirety during an upward cycle alone (20th century).

Going one level of abstraction higher: there is no evidence that demand/supply dynamics alone will regulate a society over larger populations and time scales. Even the phrase "invisible hand" appears only once in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, somewhere around page 500, and that refers not to the market at large, but to the emergence of protectionist behaviours among suppliers within a country.

Laws and regulations are part of the free market system. As rules approach zero, competition approaches war.

replies(2): >>44364931 #>>44383417 #
2. ourmandave ◴[24 Jun 25 11:20 UTC] No.44364931[source]▶
Laws and regulations are part of the free market system.

I thought we've known since well before the 1952 Cuyahoga River fire that sparked the formation of the EPA.

Although TBF, there's never been a lot of demand for literal burning rivers.

replies(1): >>44365283 #
3. CogitoCogito ◴[24 Jun 25 12:11 UTC] No.44365283[source]▶
I'm pretty sure we've actually known this since time immemorial. Property, contract, etc. are all legal constructs. Talking about free markets (or whatever approximation to "free" is meant by that) without laws and regulations doesn't make any sense.
4. const_cast ◴[26 Jun 25 01:28 UTC] No.44383417[source]▶
We already have real-world proof of this which is why regulations were slowly (and bloodily) introduced in the first place.

It's the same tragedy of the commons we see with vaccinations. Vaccinations work, so we then forget why we had them in the first place, so then we think "well... what if we just stop?"