The Republican's irrational push for complete economic deregulation is an insult to one of the nation's founding principles: capitalism. Capitalism has succeeded while other systems have fallen by the wayside for one simple reason: greed. Other economic/political systems have tried to ignore or eliminate greed, but not capitalism. Capitalism accepts that greed and ambition are inherit human qualities. Since they can't be eliminated, they should be exploited to produce prosperity.
While greed unleashed has a huge potential for good, it is still greed: the sin which is also the root of evil. Greed is a strong draft horse. If left to its own devices on the farm, it would destroy the crops. It needs to be put to the yoke and guided to get work done. The secret is the make the yoke as light has possible and make sure it does not choke the beast.
Anyone who has studied history should understand the insanity of deregulation for the sake of deregulation. It was the unregulated, profit-at-any-cost labor market that gave the world the slave trade. The unregulated food market gave us Sinclair's The Jungle and recently, poisonous Chinese baby formula. The unregulated capital market is that of the mafia loan shark.
There are great reasons to reduce some regulations. Foolish or overbearing regulations can unnecessarily cripple businesses. They can even drive segments of the economy into the black market. But regulation is necessary to produce trust and broad prosperity in society. To ignore the need for regulation is the ignore the reason capitalism works. The system is powered by greed, and greed will always encourage people to cut corners, run scams, and cheat. The Republican party should stop pushing for deregulation and work towards balanced regulation.
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