Deregulation is another way of saying buyer beware.

When there’s “deregulation” of industry, that means less experts will be inspecting or requiring standards from goods and services sold to everybody, and less oversight and little prevention of false claims. It leaves it up to individuals to figure out if products, including foods and medicines, including prescription drugs, or things like cars, are in fact safe or effective, or possibly harmful or deadly. And that could mean finding out the hard way.

I’ve also heard it said a few times that it should just be called “re-regulation” because in fact what so-called deregulation does is just switch the regulation from protecting consumers to protecting bad actors.

LIVE: Investigative Journalist gives URGENT WARNING on Trump Transition | The Weekend Show MeidasTouch Streamed live on Dec 29, 2024 David Cay Johnston” “I want to get you to not use that word deregulation there is no such thing as deregulation there is only re-regulation and the history of America going back to Jimmy Carter is the re-regulation takes away from consumers takes away from customers and from investors and from workers and imbues power and authority and the freedom to be abusive to those people who own the companies those people who run run the institutions so everything is regulated one of the things I I’ve always taught my students is you know everything is regulated say this university like every other university in America regulates dating and it takes them a while even the third-year law students it takes them a while and they go oh sexual harassment that’s oh that is kind of regulating dating isn’t it we regulate baseball regulate how many stitches are on the ball the color of the yarn and the material that the yarn is made with everything is regulated in some way so when people say deregulation they’re trying to get you to not see what’s happening which is reducing your rights and privileges and expanding those of the people who have more power and political influence than you do”

None of this really makes sense in the context of a civilization. The benefits of organizing a community with various people and institutions specializing in different things is that everyone doesn’t have to be an expert in everything – because that’s impossible. Civilizations free people up to be efficient and thrive. Humans have been doing this better and better over thousands of years, why would we go backwards? So there’s really no rational argument against regulations unless someone is saying they actually want an extremely inefficient failing society. That simply doesn’t make sense.

✏️ My letter to reps:

I can’t be an expert in everything. I shouldn’t be threatened by dubious products or dangerous services. I want the government to regulate things so I don’t have to spend so much time trying to figure out what’s safe, effective, or even for real.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.