>I fail to see how any of this is offensive.

Because judging countries for not being able to meet standards its incapable of meeting is plain naive colonialist mentality. It's like criticizing a school yard basketball player for not being up to NBA standards, then getting mad when people point out that they aren't in the NBA. Like what are you expecting to accomplish by projecting your beliefs about regulations in a situation like that, and then acting as if people are attacking your way of life? Again, it must be really convenient to have been sheltered and only ever have known environments where abundant regulations are possible, but stop projecting your morals on people that live differently.

>Do you find it offensive that people prefer to live in countries with a high standard of living if given the choice?

I don't see the need for you to be asking such an obvious question, other than to intentionally try to put words in my mouth or paint some kind of strawman of my arguments. The answer should be obvious to anyone.

>Is that somehow disrespectful to the people who do not have that choice?

No, but accusing people of suffering from some kind of cognitive bias ("when i was young we didn't have [seatbelts|gun regulation|hard hats on construction sites] and i turned out just fine!") when all they're doing is explaining why a certain situation is the way it is, is definitely disrespectful. Again, re-read my original comment: nowhere was I even remotely attacking western standards, yet you chose to respond to it by criticizing someone for explaining how they lived through sub-par circumstances. Like seriously, what need was there to get all holier-than-thou about this?

>Generally you seem to agree that regulation can be beneficial (if compliance is feasible).

Only up to a point. I am generally pessimistic about how government intervention in the free market tends to turn out. I'm an entrepreneur here in the US, and enjoy some of the luxuries the US has compared to my home country, but I'd be lying if I didn't think certain regulations were hindering my ability to even start certain businesses (not because I try to do anything questionable, but because I have ADHD and literally can't stand to jump through endless hoops and file mountains of paperwork). I've already switched states once here to move to one that had more favorable business regulations than the one I originally came to.

>I'm sure you also agree that you'd like the toys you buy for your kids in the US to comply with US safety standards, even when they're made in china, and regardless of whatever standards exist in china?

What does this have to do with anything? I'm not opposed to businesses following the regulations of the countries they intend to do business in. The problem with the GDPR is that now a lot of businesses that weren't even intending to do business in the EU, now have a huge universal liability on their hands. Yeah "they've had enough time" and all that, but that still doesn't change the fact that the EU has done the equivalent of police china's toy manufacturers according to its own standards, simply because these toys may potentially get shipped to the EU at some point. It's not the same as having a requirement that toys entering the country meet a certain standard, because a public web server can be accessed by anyone at any time, even if the host was never intending to serve EU people specifically.