ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the classical liberal or libertarian natural rights perspective would respond to the welfare statist position that the market morally requires government regulation. It looks at one of the main regulatory agencies of the US federal government, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and seeks to determine whether it is morally proper and needed. The chapter analyses whether the sort of activities OSHA carries out vis-a-vis many corporations is something governments should be engaged in. Those holding the more radical viewpoint would readily admit that problems in the business community exist that might sometimes be solved by OSHA-type organizations. The natural right to private property supports a legal system that assigns freedom to each individual within some range of alternatives. Workers also have the right, as do others, to organize into groups, with willing associates, and to authorize selected people to represent them in trade negotiations.
