Too many ex ante regulations, anyone? I am interrupting my series of blog posts on the common law to ask, What happened to the future? Where did we go wrong? Or as Peter Thiel once remarked, “We wanted flying cars; instead we got 140 characters.” This is one of my favorite quotes of all time, but coming from my fellow libertarian-minded colleague Peter Thiel–the first outside investor in the original Facebook, a social media platform that at one time was even more addicting than Twitter–a potential answer to my question becomes apparent. Aviation and transportation are two of the most heavily-regulated businesses in the world (see here, for example); social media, by contrast, is one of the few remaining activities that are almost entirely free from government regulation. As an aside, this is just another reason why I favor the common law approach to legal liability (ex post regulation) over the “modern” approach (ex ante regulation). Am I wrong? Change my mind!
prior probability 
The problem with any “where we went wrong” question is that the so-called answer depends on what the questioner thinks is “right.” And “right” to some people may be defined by the path taken rather than by the outcome. The better question then is, what are one’s priorities? Is it people or principle? And in that regard, what works? Does adherence/belief in Principle X actually accomplish the goal it purports to? And even if it does, is that a worthy goal? By what measure?
That is a fair point, but who among us would be opposed to flying cars?