The Liberty Papers

Kevin Drum:

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act makes it illegal to sell toys that haven’t been tested for lead content. In general, I think that’s a perfectly fine idea.

You know, I’ll step away from anarchism for a moment to say this.

I think, in general, it’s perfectly fine to make it illegal to sell toys that contain (over a certain trace amount) of lead.

I think mandating that everything undergo extensive third-party testing, however, is bad policy.

If you create the regulation up-front, the market will find more efficient ways to satisfy the regulation than government-forced methods.