Monte,

Let's refine our discussion. 

#1. Let's draw a line between what goods and services paid for with taxes are available to all and those benefits given on the basis of social identifiers such as race. I was talking about that latter group. 

#2. Businesses survive on their reputation and being known as a provider of defective products, so they must be able to change quickly or they will die. Regulations typically prevent this by greatly increasing the time, cost and complexity of making changes. 

By the way, EPA studies have shown that "acid rain" was a myth (insects were killing the trees) and emissions from coal-fired power plants did little to no damage to the environment. 

A little regulation can be good, but 90% exist to give advantage to politically-connected favorites, or just to sustain bureaucracy.

The size of a corporate bureaucracy is a direct measure of either how much the government regulates it or a predictor of how great it's danger of collapse.