Socialists would have you believe that government safety regulations lead to higher safety standards than a free market would provide. The reality however, is that the agencies responsible for product safety are quickly captured by the parties they are intended to regulate – and then used to socialize costs and restrict competition. Regulating safety standards causes them to become too high, too low – or both at the same time, since different markets and different consumers are willing to pay different prices for safety.
As Creekstone farms recently found out, attempting to independently certify goods at a higher standards than the regulatory agency is a threat both to the regulatory agency’s legitimacy and an opportunity for competition – something not tolerated in our mixed-economy society. (From Mises.org)