In case my dear reader read my Case For Regulation post and shrugged in disbelief, here’s the flip side:
Protesters in Beirut occupied government ministries, set fires and faced off against security forces Saturday in an outpouring of anger directed at Lebanon’s leaders following the huge blast that ripped through the city earlier this week.
As the battles raged, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab delivered an address to the nation that left little doubt the political establishment intends to dig in. He offered early elections and said he needed two more months to secure an agreement among the country’s political factions.
But the protesters said they don’t want their politicians to agree on early elections under a decades-old system they blame for the dysfunction that allowed a vast stockpile of explosive material to sit unattended at their port for more than six years, only to explode on Tuesday with such power that it was felt 120 miles away in Cyprus.
The cry from the streets is for the politicians to stand down, and open the way for a new order in Lebanon. [WaPo]
Government is responsible for public safety, and this is accomplished through regulation. When the government fails in this duty, it’s not acceptable to suggest it’s not really needed, it’s too expensive, it impacts corporate profits, and, well, what’s a little occasional death anyways?
These are the sorts of arguments the libertarian wing of the Republican Party likes, or at least liked when I was still reading their rags, to bring up when someone mentions regulations. Too damn expensive?
“Resign or Hang” said the banners advertising the demonstration, making it clear that the demand is for the politicians to go, not to agree.
Better rethink that position, boys, because pretending to be clever about that consarned government doesn’t get you Jacque Merde when the mob is running after you in the alley. And while an accidental fertilizer bomb is more eye-catching than, say, salmonella on the cabbage, each is needlessly dangerous if unregulated – and, no, business owners are not rational creatures. They can be – but more often they are not.
