Archive for the ‘public goods’ tag

Guest blog (Adam Kupetsky): Regulate me!

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from Adam Kupetsky, a resident of Tulsa .

Even after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression almost sank us into a second Great Depression, some politicians still believe that “no regulation” is the answer.  Regardless of the industry concerned, politicians with lobbyists’ money in their pockets or ideologies to prove correct find reasons to oppose effective regulation and make it possible for free market excesses to reduce our confidence in the free market.

Opposition to regulation in any form is just as radical and crazy as a socialist’s complete opposition to the market.

The truth is that Americans want the market to be left alone when it works and for the government to step in and regulate when the market doesn’t work.  Health care is one example where the market has not worked completely and requires some government regulation of private insurance companies.  Absent some government regulation of health care, insurance companies have shown that they will not provide coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, will impose lifetime spending caps, will deny coverage to the sick and will keep prices unreasonably high. Read the rest of this entry »