Comment by quotemstr
2 hours ago
The HN bias towards state regulation of, well, everything comes from the epistemic invincibility felt by people who have never seriously failed.
Understanding that we should let markets, prices, and individual choices guide policy comes out of personal experience of having been 100% certain of something and having been wrong. Once that happens to you a few dozen times, you start to appreciate that your feeling of being certain does not necessarily correspond to your having discovered a predictive theory of reality.
You must understand that much of HN is literally too young to have had a chance to interact in any way with building regulations. It's not literally every user of course, but it's obvious that HN is biased towards the brashness of youth.
Isn't the purpose of many regulations to stop people who are wrong from harming themselves and others? That is, the experience of being wrong also teaches respect for rules one doesn't understand.
That is claimed, but often the real purpose is to stop people who otherwise could do something from taking that work away from whatever group created the regulation.
Electrician/plumber/hvac trade groups salivate over the idea of having the products they install be as locked down as Hyundai brake pads.
1 reply →
You’re possibly right that HN is young, but in that case you’re missing how the circumstances of their youth and young adulthood have made them wary of deregulation in the macro sense.