Is the slogan "consenting adults" an adequate foundation for all economic regulation?

[Boojatta]

Last edited Wed Jan 11, 2012, 01:42 PM - Edit history (6)

Radical free market enthusiasts combine their "consenting adults" criterion with a focus on economic activity. It doesn't seem to matter what the economic activity is. Some people regret that "mission accomplished" no longer refers to European governments winning a war to ensure that Europeans can sell opium in China. After all, provided that in each case the seller and buyer of the opium were consenting adults, the "consenting adults" criterion isn't violated. It's possible to argue that the Opium War was necessary to "liberate" China.

Other people regret that part of history, but have persuaded themselves that if a prostitute and potential customer are both adults and both consent to a prostitution transaction then it is unjust for any government to interfere with their transaction.

Suppose that a developer has enough money to buy some farmland or other undeveloped land, and to pay an architect to design, and a general contractor to manage, a building project for the land.

Now, consider some questions:

Should they be at all constrained in deciding how wide or narrow the streets will be? Should the buildings meet any particular standards to reduce the risk of fire, or to reduce the odds that fires will cause great harm when they occur? Do the buildings need to be designed and built to withstand earthquakes? Many more such questions could be asked.

Interestingly, the "consenting adults" criterion suggests that the answer to all of the above questions is "no." After all, both the developer and the general contractor are likely to be adults. Provided that they both consent, they can build whatever they like. If "consenting adults" is our criterion for what should be legal, then the law has nothing to say here. The only constraint is a pragmatic one: can the developer get financing, find suckers who will buy the properties, and make a profit?

A question remains: why should we believe that the historical experience of humanity can simply be ignored with impunity and replaced with the simple "consenting adults" criterion?

For example,

Fire was used in ancient buildings for heat, light and cooking. Early cities were densely populated for security reasons, often individual dwellings shared common walls; typical roofs were thatched. Early chimneys were often short with a fairly large opening and allowed embers to travel to neighboring dwellings and set the thatched roof on fire. A fire in early cities often resulted in the destruction of the entire city since early firefighting equipment and methods were primitive and ineffective. After Rome burned several times, a night patrol of slaves called a “vigile” was organized to alert a neighborhood in event of a fire. This Latin word was the basis for our words vigil and vigilante.

The French and English established an hour by which all fires had to be extinguished; it came to be known as the curfew (taken from words meaning “cover fire”). Early London, including the original London Bridge, burned several times. London suffered a major fire in 1212 with over 3,000 people killed; afterward, thatch roofing and wooden chimneys were restricted. Early English arson punishments included being burned alive or dragged to death. Moscow suffered a 1571 fire which killed approximately 200,000 people and 90% of the city (30,000 homes) was burned again in 1812 prior to occupation by Napoleon.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 burned for five days; destroyed 13,000 homes (2/3 of the city) and left over 200,000 people homeless. The fire occurred after a summer-long drought and was spread by high winds. The first fire insurance companies and first fire departments were founded after this fire. This fire led to the first requirements for the use of fire pumps (fed by bucket brigades), fire insurance and ladders for fire suppression/rescue. New building laws, passed after the fire, prevented use of timber, mandated brick or stone construction and greatly widened streets.

The quoted material above is from:

Large Building Fires and Subsequent Code Changes

http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/member%20sections/aebocodechanges.pdf