"Externalities do not imply that a government can do better."

Part of a bigger essay on fairness and markets - worth the read (Bleedingheartlibertarians): 

Externalities do not imply that a government can do better.  Publicity does better than inspectors in restraining the alleged desire of businesspeople to poison their customers.  Efficiency is not the chief merit of a market economy: innovation is.  Rules arose in merchant courts and Quaker fixed prices long before governments started enforcing them.