Prometheus 6   

And this pretty much sums up my feelings about what Government is and why I believe that things need to be regulated: Because without it we'd descend right back in to feudal despotism and roving bands of warlords. Which is why, I guess, that a majority of Libertarians have a gun fetish.

I'm a frikin' capitalist. I think the market is a fabulous idea. But it's simply a tool. And it's a tool that does whatever we tell it to. Like nuclear power, it can either be used for "good" or it can be used for "evil". And the question we have to answer is what do we want our government/economy/internet to turn out to be. It is a complete fantasy to believe that if we just "let things be", they will be the beautiful butterfly that is yearning to be free.

And believing in this fantasy world is simply complete lunacy. Just my opinion.

The default state of human organization is not democracy. People who believe the Libertarian fantasy of zero regulation simply have not noticed that a Liberal Democracy like the US is a singular event. Pretty much every government that came before was brutish, thuggish and despotic. And those were during the good times. The rest of the time - the majority of the time, it seems - humans have been ruled by roving bands of warlords.

And it's only through a lot of hard work by really dedicated, smart people that the US is still in the wonderful state that it is. That we've managed to keep our land as free as it is and as prosperous as it has become is that we've done a really good job of regulating things. Yea, regulating things.

I completely agree that the best regulation is the regulation you don't even notice. I'm not someone who believes we should just pile up money on the most oppressive regulation you can imagine. This is an idiotic, moronic belief.

Let's put it another way. If I start a garden, I weed the heck out of it. I'm out there ever other day pulling those bastard weeds out of my garden. I take care of the things I'm growing and make sure that they have all the nutrients they need. And I make sure they get the right amount. Not too much, not too little. I check on the plants every day to make sure they're doing all right. I worry over them and fuss over them.

In short, I'm regulating the entire environment.