But if you don’t like industry contaminating your air, poisoning your food, or exploiting your children, what are you supposed to do, other than sue or regulate? The market is simply not equipped to cope with these things, as the bad old days of the 19th century richly illustrated.

Winged pigs could also make pork transport less costly, although they could cause more problems for the FAA or border patrols.

We all understand the Ma and Pa Kettle theory of regulation. It always begins, “I we could do it right…” Let me suggest another theory; we can call it regulatory capture. It doesn’t assume that regulation will be good or bad, only that it will serve the values of those who invest the most in congressional campaigns and lobbying.

It never ceases to amaze me how much people who dwell on market failure consistently underestimate government failure, even when the root problem being discussed is the disproportionate influence of the most politically connected to get legislation at the expense of the rest of us.

Just think about the problems with the term “organic”. Many people want to buy “organic” produce. But if there’s no standard for the label, then those who spend the least in terms of actual sustainable farming and healthy growing practices will reap the most benefit from slapping the term on the label. It would be difficult for the consumer to disintangle “cheap talk” from an authentic signal of quality.

So good regulation and labeling practices can help reduce informational assymetries, in a pro-consumer manner.

Mea culpa! I remembered seeing reference to that song recently, but I had forgotten where. Please accept a belated tip o’ the hat.

Your and Geoff’s comments on your post are also worth noting. They raise the great debate over whether Ms. Morissette is crafty or ignorant. It is indeed ironic that a song called “Ironic” contains lyrics that aren’t. Thus, Mo Rocca continued: “Alanis always gets the last laugh though. We all sit here, saying her song isn’t ironic, but in fact, that’s pretty ironic that she wrote a song called ‘Ironic’ that wasn’t really ironic. Those Canadians are pretty crafty.” On the other hand, Alanis herself has conceded that she is a “malapropism queen.”

More at Wikipedia. (Of course!)