Comment by nickpp

> It's unclear exactly what you're arguing

Actually, it's perfectly clear to me.

> we shouldn't have any regulation

Nope, he's not saying that at all. He's just saying that any regulation (no matter how necessary, well intended or even perfect it is) has a cost. And that cost is accumulating across all regulations.

Furthermore, that cost is easily supported by large incumbents (big fans of regulation, btw) but it hurts startups the most. Thus the more regulations a market has, the fewer startups will have. Fewer startups means less competition. Less competition means less innovation, fewer products and higher prices. We can easily see this effect unfolding in the housing, education or health markets.

Bottom line is: we must take those second order effects of regulation into consideration when talking about it.