alt Hacker News>Markets also cannot account for externalities. If those externalities are something you care about (e.g. the environment you live in) - you need regulation.
Markets account for externalities via ownership and torts. This was gutted in the 1800s in the US where a judge ruled people couldn't sue for the impact of environmental pollution, in the name of the "greater good" of industrialization.
Replies
pnut • last Wednesday at 12:44 PM
Rule of law and precedent are considered quaint and optional now.
But this centuries-old decision not encapsulated as a constutional amendment is binding?
Nope.
I'd disagree with the framing of this: The ownership and torts _were_ the regulation. I'm using a narrow definition of "market" that really only concerns supply and demand (because this is what "free market" ideals all revolve around).