Regulation is also the way 'hated government' limited the reach of
AT&T in the
US, and
Bell Canada now
BCE in
Canada, and let
dial-up become the way most of us get onto the
internet.
Regulation is the way government limits, though cannot prevent the adulteration of food and drugs, through the Food and Drug Administration in The United States, and what's left of the Health Protection Branch in Canada.
Regulation sets at least limited standards for the manufacture of cars, airplanes, electrical devices, including computers, and the purity of water provided by municipal water utilities, though there are failures, like the recent one in Walkerton, Ontario.
Walkerton seems to be the result of a loosening of regulation by the Tory government of Mike Harris.
Even so-called, voluntary self-regulation only works if industry knows that their failure to self-regulate will be backed up by the force of the state.
Only when regulation is in the public sector can we hope, maybe not always to stop tragedies, but to find out why they happen, and prevent them from ever happening again.