One of the many realizations that pushed me away from libertarianism is that I don't want to research every part of my daily life. Today in the US, I can
* Buy any brand of meat in any grocery store and be confident it won't make my family sick.
* Visit any barber and be confident I won't get a weird scalp infection
* Fly with any airline and be confident I'll get to my destination alive
This confidence is incredibly valuable to me. I don't know what percentage of my taxes goes towards these regulations, but what ever it is, I'm happy to pay it.
There are a few other issues that prevent True Libertarianism from ever actually being possible, namely you’d need unlimited liability and juries that could appropriately assign blame and penalties but you’re still left with the principal-agent issue where a highly compensated exec could make buckets of money doing unethical business if only the firm is responsible for the outcomes. We’re much better off with minimum safety standards and relying on Capitalism to drive prices and allocate resources inside that ‘arena’.
This isn't entirely fair. There's nothing stopping a rigorous certification system (either private or public) from existing alongside a less regulated system.
USDA organic comes to mind.
Just as libertarians are often overly black and white, so are regulatory regimes.
