The “Always Wear A Bikini” Argument

Via Catallarchy:

"Frequent Catallarchy reader and commenter Jeff Darcy hits on one of my pet peeves:

How, other than through government, would you ensure that [corporations] don’t get so large? I mean ensure, not just hope or assume that things will work out, because history has shown that such is not the rationally expected result without intervention.

The simple and obvious answer is the regulatory mechanism of market competition, an explaination of which can be found in any microeconomics textbook.

(...) What is the next best alternative - or at least the alternative offered by critics of market outcomes? Government.

So let us rephrase Jeff’s question given this alternative regulatory mechanism. How, other than through a divine being, would you ensure that governments don’t become too large, too unwieldy, or in other ways too undesirable?

I mean ensure, not just hope or assume that things will work out, because history has shown that such is not the rationally expected result without divine intervention. Or, as David Friedman put it:

"An ideal objectivist society with a limited government is superior to an anarcho-capitalist society in precisely the same sense that an ideal socialist society is superior to a capitalist society. Socialism does better with perfect people than capitalism does with imperfect people; limited government does better with perfect people than anarcho-capitalism with imperfect. And it is better to wear a bikini with the sun shining than a raincoat when it is raining. That is no argument against carrying an umbrella."