Regulatory agencies are not needed and actually retard whatever good they are supposed to prevent or mitigate. I will give three examples in this essay.
The Centers for Disease Control
The underlying rationale for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is that one federal agency has the ability to garner all the correct and legitimate medical information about a topic quickly, sift through the data, and recommend appropriate and timely action. On the face of it, this is a ridiculous undertaking. Medical information is scattered widely among scholars worldwide. It is impossible for one agency to know what is true, what is false, what is appropriate, or what is best.
Medical knowledge evolves constantly. Medicine is never a “settled science,” and it never will be. (George Washington’s death was agonizing because his doctors followed the “settled science” that recommended leeches for ameliorating a serious chill.) The best we can do is to allow a free market in medical research and patient outreach, then let the individual decide what is best. After all, this is nothing more than freedom based upon self-ownership. This conclusion would be the same if those at the CDC were not corrupt but honest citizens attempting to honor their mandate.
However, we know that power corrupts, and we saw this demonstrated to our horror with sanctions against respected researchers and doctors who disagreed with the CDC’s recommended approach. We are now learning that these respected researchers and doctors were correct and that the CDC’s recommendations, which became diktats, were harmful.
Hellbound and Down 