What are the main Austrian criticisms of government regulation?

[Tex2002ans]

@WallStreetAce

And, wasn’t Hong Kong also an unregulated economy before the introduction of its minimum wage in 2006? I ask for examples because I’d like to show my friend that an unregulated market economy can be prosperous and safe at the same time, and that government isn’t needed to step in and act as referree.

Yes, but who knows where he would take the conversation then. He will point out the “horrible” housing, the SPECULATION, and everything being run by rich asian guys (do they have evil curly mustaches as well?)… and perhaps all of the “illegal” things being produced from there!! (radios that go out of US bounds, cell phone jammers are two examples)… I do not think that would be an effective way to argue with this type of person (epsecially with this next paragraph you bring up).

Another great example is the collapse of the USSR. There was a very high push towards less regulation in all those states. I wonder if he is going to say the people in those states are worse off because of it. Or then if he begins to say “the USSR was too much”, then you ask why, how, where do you draw the arbitrary line as the stopping point.

And I would NEVER use it on this type of person, but Sweden is a great example of deregulation as well:

Mises Daily | Mises Institute

The Myth of Scandinavian Socialism

Many leftists often point to the “superiority” of Scandinavian “socialism.” Leftists often use Denmark and Sweden as their examples, since they are the most successful Scandinavian nations. I already covered this issue in an earlier post, but I feel it is important to rehash this topic and to post a refutation of this leftist fallacy. For this post, we shall define Scandinavian countries as Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. Some might dispute whether we should consider Finland and I…

@WallStreetAce

The example he gives me of an economy where mass industrialization and market forces runs rampant is China in all of its cities, where the citizens are forced to breathe in polluted air and there are no barriers limiting how much a firm can pollute.

By the gods… that is the exact opposite of voluntary capitalism. That is state run, state approved, and highly controlled economy.

The problem with pollution is not enforcement of Property Rights. I would recommend reading Rothbard in For A New Liberty on that topic… but the basic argument is, the government does not allow people who are damaged by the pollution to sue, because it is for “the greater good.” The government decides that industry and producing things are more important than people’s pollution problem. This is a problem of monopoly courts and nonenforcement of Property Rights, not of “capitalism run rampant”.