&gt; <i>Regulations are, in general, extremely efficient at creating monopolies and utterly inefficient in protecting the customer.</i><p>Regulations are what keeps your food from making you sick on the spot, what keeps the air you breathe from melting your lungs, what lets you buy a new widget in confidence that it won&#x27;t burn your house down. Regulations are extremely effective at protecting customers from abusive, greedy entrepreneurs. They&#x27;re not perfect, and yes, with enough private money flowing into the process, they can create monopolies. But generally, they&#x27;re good at their job.