> Here’s why: who does the regulating? The government?
The people.
Politics is also a market. New regulations arise when there is sufficient demand for them, as determined by the way the society is governed. If businesses don't want more regulations, they can always act in ways that don't create demand for regulations. But they often don't, because the market can reward defection better than cooperation.
The market just works the way it works, and regulations are one of the consequences.
If The People are qualified to regulate matters pertaining to 4WD vs AWD, then they are capable of figuring out which one to buy.
For what it’s worth, I believe some regulations are low effort and high return, and those ones are worth it. But to believe that regulation can solve everything is a simple mistake in logic, as shown above.
> If The People are qualified to regulate matters pertaining to 4WD vs AWD, then they are capable of figuring out which one to buy.
Buddy, if every American agreed with that sentiment then crystal meth would be legal nationwide. Sometimes the long arm of the law does have to supersede your freedom of choice to disable harmful options from being availible. This is actually pretty common in the automotive and agricultural sectors of not just the United States but most of the free world.
The average American knows the value of a seatbelt, but that's no excuse to give customers an option to buy a car without safety measures. It borders on homicidal insanity to suggest otherwise.
2. Read my last paragraph, I agree that low-cost and low-effort regulation like outlawing meth and enforcing seatbelts can have a big ROI.
Note though that the source of these regulations is The People, the same folks who vote for and ultimately decide on regulations are also the ones who make purchasing decisions.
People elect representatives, and very often they aren't even given a practical choice between conservative or liberal candidates. The control the average US citizen wields over regulation borders on non-existent, not even remotely comparable to your purchasing power at K-Mart or the Ford Dealership.
The point is that people generally don't know what they want for themselves. In certain industries like aviation and medicine, products do not legally exist until they are fundamentally scrutinized for harm to humans. This idea that the average American is an informed shopper is as illusory as the average citizen not voting a straight-ticket ballot. Advertising is just about the only thing that they are proven to understand, which is why that too is regulated carefully.
The people.
Politics is also a market. New regulations arise when there is sufficient demand for them, as determined by the way the society is governed. If businesses don't want more regulations, they can always act in ways that don't create demand for regulations. But they often don't, because the market can reward defection better than cooperation.
The market just works the way it works, and regulations are one of the consequences.