I'd love to believe that people are fundamentally good, that if given the freedom to choose they will choose the right thing. Instead, I've seen that absence of regulation people will choose the short-term, selfish, most for me & screw you option.

Communism works, in theory. Libertarianism works, in theory. Both fail because the mass of humanity is greedy, short-sighted, and stupid/ignorant and as studies (who's unbiased nature one may question) have shown, the general populace has proven itself to prefer to remain low information.

So ideally, I agree with you. That being said with the world as it is? If it's a choice between my way or his way, I want my way.