For counter examples look at child labor, unsafe foods and drugs prior to the regulation of pharmaceuticals and food/water in the country. Natural monopolies and the fallout from railroads and utilities of the same time period. US pre-rural electrification law. Etc.
Some things can never properly self regulate, like natural monopolies (utilities and things that have no elastic supply and demand, like health care). Some things can. It’s finding the right balance.
So history is firmly on the side of “no, self regulation sometimes leads to very bad things that never self correct” or if they are self correcting, the process of self correction leaves a lot of people dead.
Why building codes exist (as someone who does construction, I dislike them, but I also get why they exist).
Sometimes over regulation is a bad thing, but no regulation or controls is often a lot worse. We have OSHA and workplace safety laws and regulations because of centuries of many employers proving they won’t provide proper employee safety. Sometimes that crap goes way too far. I’d rather they take crap too far in the name of safety sometimes then not far enough most of the time leaving people maimed or dead.
Just saying.
Free market is a pipe dream. As much as I’d LIKE it to work that way, it fails in many ways. Just like complete socialist control of markets fails. Just in different ways. As with almost anything in life the best way for the vast majority of people is somewhere in the middle.
