Regulations are simply the rules of the game

[Viva_Daddy]

Every game has a set of rules. Without rules, there is anarchy. Regulations set reasonable limits on conduct for the protection of society, just like criminal laws.

We have seen the mess that can happen after “deregulation”.

Don’t you think it odd that people who are so adamant about the need for “law and order” in the criminal justice system would be so against “law and order” (i.e., regulation) in our commercial and economic system? Why is that?

[PETRUS]

1. Why must we drive on the right side of the road?

Motorists should be free to innovate!

[Capitalocracy]

2. Damn right! Free market! Drive on the sidewalk! nt

[JDPriestly]

3. That is what is so great about the OWS movement.

The banks and big business don't want regulation. The OWS movement refuses to be regulated.

We now see that what banks and big business really want is to be free from regulation themselves. What the banks and big business don't want is freedom from regulation those of us who are neither banks nor big business.

If deregulation is good for banks and big business, certainly it is good for those of us who want to exercise our Constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of assembly.

Congress is specifically granted the authority to regulate commerce. Art. I, section 8, U.S. Constitution.

Congress is specifically prohibited from so much as abridging the right of free speech or peaceable assembly. 1st Amendment, U.S. Constitution.

[applegrove]

4. Regulations make risk manageable.

[quaker bill]

5. Regulations level the playing field

when properly written and equitably implemented. They do nothing more or less. This is the real reason that regulations for the most part have either no adverse or a positive impact on the economy. A level playing field where few if any cheat and get away with it is actually helpful to a market economy because there is reasonable assurance that the goods purchased are as advertised.

[PETRUS]

6. I'd go one further - regulations create the playing field.

Unless we want pure might makes right, it's not a question of regulations or not. It's a question of what regulations.

[quaker bill]

9. In some measure you are correct

for many there would be no chance to compete at all without regulation.

[meow2u3]

7. Let's reframe the regulations issue

I suggest we rebaptize regulations as Economic/Commercial Law and Order. This way, when the repukes pontificate against regulations, it would suggest they're in favor of economic/commercial lawlessness.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

8. I've Always Drawn The Parallel.............

..........that having banking, investing, etc., without regulations is like playing a football game without any referees on the field and just counting on the players to call their own penalties (or to declare if and when they've scored a TD, and how many points that TD might be worth at any given time--I can just see the right-wing players arguing now, "Well, he makes 3 times more than the guy on the other team, therefore his TDs need to be worth 3 times as many points; after all, he's EARNED it!") How do you think THAT would work out? Roughly as well as pretty much EVERY deregulated industry IN HISTORY has?