Why Regulation Is Bad From Any Perspective

Via Obnoxio comes this posting on how the MHRA hopes to crack down on the sale of nicotine containing products such as e-cigarettes and the like; Obo making the notable point that Leg-Iron's very likely to explode.

Having worked in an industry responsible for healthcare products up till very recently I've had quite a few run-in's with the MHRA- I'll post on that later more thoroughly when I've collected my thoughts on the subject (along with my views on energy that I promised Oleuanna); one thing I will say: regulation is a bad thing, but one of Maggie's lesser and more insidious enduring legacies (for which as a chemist by training she really should have known better) was for disseminating legislative powers to regulatory bodies, i.e. allowing bodies like the MHRA rule book to become self amending.

I will first be looking into putting my own views together to add to the consultation forum they have to set up (as a pretext) to curbing the sale of these products by pulling them under medicines legislation.

I don't smoke. I used to, but quit when I met my then girlfriend, now wife. Occasionally I enjoy a cigar at a poker game but having lost several smoking relatives to strokes, heart disease and sudden adult death attributable to living high on the hog I do both less so than before. My wife has lost 2 close relatives, one to lung cancer the other to (age and) the beginnings of COPD and thus swears off the vice entirely. Despite all this I will defend the right of those who do indulge to the end; I don't have to like some freedoms to support them, just know that overall outcomes will be better for it.

All that said I do have one thought about regulation; if we are so intent on socialising the costs of welfare, healthcare and (if Gordo has his way) socialcare why are we not as earnest to socialise the costs of regulation to business? Why aren't bigger businesses not paying a larger proportion to the pot based on their ability to pay?

Answers on a postcard to your MP with a quick stop at google to look up Pigou taxation and Adam Smith quotes.