For instance, in a highly recommended study (available online), Robert Goldberg of Brandeis University provides strong evidence that regulation by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths in recent years.

The recognition that a proper analysis must consider the goods that never come into being because of an interventionist act, as well as the goods generated by that act, is fundamental to a correct understanding not only of consumer regulation but of intervention in general. This principle was probably first clearly articulated in 1850 by economist Frédéric Bastiat in his famous essay, "Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas [What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen]," which is available online in English translation. The principle is also the core argument of Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson ("Suggested Reading," p. 4.11:23).