> It also happens in highly regulated markets. For example, due primarily to my outward appearance (I'm not a member of the majority race), I'm often asked for 2x the normal fare in auto rickshaws. If my girlfriend (a different non-majority race than me) is with me, 3-4x [1].

Uh, that sounds like it's due to nonregulation. In my city that simply couldn't happen - licensed taxis all have to use the same meters (and display their license number prominently, making it easy to report one that's violating the rules).

In my city, licensed autos all use the same meters and display their number prominently. And if I want to wait on line for a day to complain (Marathi only, no Hindi, no English, from what I'm told), maybe something will eventually be done. Sounds as effective as the Vegas regulatory system.

In theory a perfectly enforced set of perfect regulations might fix these issues. In practice the industries that regulators are deeply involved in controlling still seem to have these issues.

> In theory a perfectly enforced set of perfect regulations might fix these issues. In practice the industries that regulators are deeply involved in controlling still seem to have these issues.

In practice regulation as it's actually practised in e.g. Germany manages perfectly well. Sounds like your regulatory system has issues. Doesn't mean all regulation is fundamentally broken.

You guys are not really arguing about more regulation vs less regulation. You're arguing about more corruption vs less corruption.