How would you know? Do you own a business? Have you ever run one? I have and do.
Are you talking from experience or are you just talking?
> Regulations protect people by forcing corporations, generally, to do something that's more expensive but better for their workers/customers/the general public
No, they don't. That's how you want them to work. It's naive to simply assume that's how it is, while having zero experience with either running a business or enforcing those same regulations.
Virtually every single regulation on the books right now was written by industry lobbyists. You don't even address this point? What do you think they're putting in those regulations?
Almost all the regulations are easy to comply for a large corporation, because they'll just throw people at it until they're compliant ... and very difficult for a small business, because they don't have the ability to jump through the hoops.
This has nothing to do with safety. Businesses which don't do a good job of whatever it is that they're doing go out of business fairly quickly or learn how to do it right. Those regulations are almost never enforced.
It's the mountain of paperwork, reporting requirements, licensing requirements, it's those sorts of things that choke the life out of a small business and they are designed to do just that.
> general public because our society has decided (by voting)
That is really naive. Your representatives don't write laws. They just sign them. And they sign whatever is put in front of them and they are told to sign. Who do you think tells them to sign those laws? Hint: It's not you.
