If Regulation Works, Why Does Everything Suck?
It’s not just about one bad law or one corrupt official. It’s structural. The rules keep changing in ways that sound helpful, but somehow, always seem to benefit the folks who are already winning.
We all know the drill by now. Some new law or policy gets passed, and we’re told it’s for our own good. “To protect the consumer.” “To level the playing field.” “To make things fairer.” Nice-sounding reasons, but the more you watch how these rules work in practice, the less believable it gets. Whether you’re talking about Nigeria or South Africa, the result looks eerily familiar: prices go up, options disappear, smaller players get pushed out, and the same old names keep getting richer.
Ever wonder why that keeps happening?
All protection, no benefit
A few years back, the Nigerian Communications Commission decided to bring back a data price floor. They said it would help “small operators compete.” That’s what they told us. But what happened? Data prices tripled overnight. You were paying more just to check your messages. And those “small operators” they claimed to be saving? Most didn’t even survive. The only ones who benefited were the big telecom companies who no longer had to worry about someone undercutting them.
Then there’s the banking sector. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is supposed to regulate these banks. Instead, it looks more like they’re working for them. How else do you explain mutilated naira notes being reissued – openly – while the regulator pretends not to see? When the people in charge are the same ones being regulated, who exactly is being protected?
And let’s talk about nurses. The Nursing and Midwifery Council rolled out new rules making it harder for Nigerian nurses to work abroad. They called it “quality control.” What is it really? A bureaucratic chokehold. You’ve got talented professionals who want to work overseas, being told they need to wait two years and cough up more money. Meanwhile, local hospitals are understaffed. Patients are waiting. But sure – let’s call that “reform.”
Meanwhile, in South Africa…
South Africa is no stranger to this kind of thing. Mediclinic, one of the major hospital groups, wanted to expand its reach by buying up hospitals in the North West. You’d think a competition regulator would raise an eyebrow. Maybe ask whether prices would rise or if patient choice would shrink. Instead, the deal went through. Just like that. Healthcare became more concentrated. And for the ordinary, uninsured South African? Fewer choices and higher fees.
Or take BEE. Started with good intentions – fix past injustices, spread economic opportunity. And what’s it become? A feeding frenzy for the politically connected. The elite have found every loophole. Front companies, sham partnerships, handpicked winners. Meanwhile, the average township entrepreneur is still hustling for scraps.
The kicker? These same elites then tell the rest of us the system is working, that it’s fair. That it just needs “better implementation.” Sure.
See the pattern yet?
It’s not just about one bad law or one corrupt official. It’s structural. The rules keep changing in ways that sound helpful, but somehow, always seem to benefit the folks who are already winning.
· Price control in telecoms? Consumers get wrecked.
· Bank regulation? Enforced only when it doesn’t inconvenience the big guys.
· Healthcare mergers? Approved even when they hurt patients.
· Professional licensing? Keeps talented people boxed in, while the country bleeds skills.
· Economic empowerment? Mostly empowers those already in power.
The stated reason is never the actual reason, and the actual outcome never matches the promise. Over time, if you keep seeing the same thing repeatedly, maybe it’s time to stop pretending it’s an accident.
Nobody’s watching the watchdogs
We like to believe that regulators are neutral. That they’re standing between us and corporate abuse. But look closer and you’ll notice something else: the regulators aren’t that different from the people they’re meant to oversee. In many cases, they are those people – just wearing a different hat.
It’s not oversight. It’s a rotating door.
You can’t write fair rules if you’re also being paid to protect the players.
Enough with the fairy tales
How long do we keep pretending that the regulatory state is there for us? If every major policy ends up concentrating wealth, silencing competition, and limiting choice, why are we still surprised?
If a company says a new rule will make things safer but your life just gets more expensive, maybe that rule wasn’t written for you. If a program claims to uplift the poor but only the minister’s cousin lands the contract, maybe the story was just a sales pitch.
At some point, you stop listening to the marketing and start looking at the results.
And once you start doing that, the pattern isn’t hard to spot.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth
The regulatory system isn’t broken. It’s just not built for you. It’s built to protect incumbents. To preserve power. To make sure no one new breaks into the club.
And all the while, it tells you it’s doing the opposite. That’s the trick.
So, the next time they roll out some shiny new policy “for your benefit,” maybe ask: who actually gets the benefit?
Because history’s given us the answer too many times already.
Econ Bro (EconBreau and EconBreau2 on Twitter/X) is a Nigerian Austrolibertarian economist and an apprentice at the Mises Institute. Under the organisation name “The Freedom Institute” he teaches individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property rights, free markets, and sound money to mostly young people across Nigeria. Econ Bro is an Associate of the Free Market Foundation.
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