@Mariah It’s more complicated than that. We have regulations because capitalism is systemically blind to externalities, and there is an incentive to pass on the cost of negative externalities even when there are regulations in place.
A business owner could cut costs by dumping waste and causing pollution, or by fraudulently claiming a product is more energy efficient than it really is, or that it produces less pollution (Volskwagen is a recent notable case).
If they believe that they can get away with it, that the short-term rewards are worth it, or that the benefits out-weigh the risks—then there’s a good chance that they will take the chance.
And we know what happens where there are no regulations. Capitalists behave as if the environment is a free-for-all, free to exploit resources, to dump pollution, to defraud consumers, and to treat workers in humiliating ways (and employ children). And the idea that “bad practices” are somehow eliminated through market discipline and consumer choice just does not stand up to any scrutiny and doesn’t happen anywhere frequently enough—if at all.
So—I’m not an idealistic fool. For as long as there is capitalism, I want government regulations—in fact, I think they should be far stronger, and I think Pigovian taxes should be put on a greater number socially and environmentally harmful products, and at far higher rates.
The thing is is that an anarchist society is necessarily a non-capitalist one (and “anarcho”-capitalists are not anarchists)—and the dynamics of economic production are very different when those who control economic production are also the ones affected by what they output—as an anarchist society is also a socialist one, with economic production being democratised and controlled directly by workers and their communities.