Government regulation is still required. Relying on corporate goodwill is a fool’s errand, historically speaking.
There is a solution though: regulate size. It's objectively measurable. The Mazda example that GP gives is legit, but it's on the knife's edge of disappearing -- one more wave of consolidation and it will be gone. But of course regulating bigness is a very pre-2007 solution. In the modern world it's all about ever-increasing bigness. Because everybody loves zombie megacorps living off of an IV drip of cheap debt.
I googled regulatory capture.
Let's look at a few things that have been regulated in the past 100 years of US history:
- car emissions
- lead usage in paint and fuel
- child toy safety
- food safety
- workplace safety
I'd say regulation has worked amazingly well since the days of Upton Sinclair novels.
My average friend and family member is both well-educated and gives almost 0 effort to either (a) looking at what government regulators are doing or (b) researching their big purchases ahead of time.