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Controversial Aspects Of Government Regulation

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Regulating a variety of aspects of business and society is an old and often controversial aspect of government, particularly at the national level. Much of what the national government does, or fails to do, has an impact on individual citizens, private corporations and other business enterprises, agricultural producers and marketers, foreign governments, labor unions, and state and local governments.
The first national regulatory efforts in the late 1800s were intended at punishment for, and the prevention of, abuses in the marketplace, antitrust violations, and price gouging. During the 20th century, government regulation became even more extensive, focusing not only on preventing certain kinds of practices, but also requiring that certain in service standards can and should be met. And the past 50 years, more than a dozen new regulatory agencies have been shaped at the national and state government levels, following the route of new regulatory statutes. Regulatory measures contact virtually every part of our lives.
Some government actions are seemingly not linked to regulating private lives, but still indeed do so. These include local building codes and zoning laws; government housing loan programs with minimum income requirements cut off many inferior citizens from an ability to …show more content…

Some challenge that the most efficient regulator is free-market competition among those seeking to attract the buying public. They argue that government regulation is intrusive with the marketplace and works to the disadvantage of both consumers and producers. Advocates of government regulation, however, see a better need to observe and guide the path of competition. They believe that an entirely unrestrained market will unavoidably lead to monopolistic practices, higher costs, underserved segments of society, and lower-quality goods and

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