Collateral damage......................

My favorite optimist takes a peek at what happens when "policy makers" get their way:

The story is almost a textbook case of why top-down regulation can be so dangerous. It lets single-issue pressure groups set targets with no thought to collateral damage, and imposes regulation that inevitably gets captured by those with a vested interest. Regulation also often stifles innovation. We may never know just how much innovation in cleaner petrol engines was prevented.

In case you miss his point:

Vital and sophisticated aspects of human society work beautifully without anybody being in charge. The English language has no director-general. The internet is a wholly unplanned thing, with nobody in charge. The world economy has emerged through trade and innovation, with no central committee. Planned economic systems have been unmitigated catastrophes for ordinary people (though nice for elites) wherever they have been tried.

As Frederic Bastiat put it in his 1850 book Economic Harmonies, how would one even contemplate setting out a plan to feed Paris, a city with hordes of people with myriad tastes? It is impossible. Yet it happens, without fail, every day (and Paris has a still vaster population today, with more eclectic taste in food).

Full blog post is here