Subject:
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Re: Don Quixote puts away his lance
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 28 Sep 1999 20:36:56 GMT
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Viewed:
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1342 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> The market is not competing on who
> has the least, but rather on who can come closest to the standard.
> Vigorous competition often produces better products in the absence of
> any specific standard to serve as a shield to hide behind.
I think competitive improvement requires the postulate of an informed, active
consumer base, which does not seem descriptive of America today. Frankly, when
I
see ads for "Pumpernickel limestone shampoo - the tingle tells you it's better
than other brands" and so forth, I realize how low an opinion corporations have
of the intellect of the American consumer. And frankly, they're right.
Are you speaking strictly theoretically, or are there real examples of
deregulation leading to safer, more effective products? I don't mean to make
you
delve into research, as I have no intent of doing so myself; I just want to
know
how many grains of salt I should take with your statement.
> I would say that a lot of industries that are rather less regulated are
> actually the safer and less polluting ones. Standards allow mediocrity
> and stifle improvement. In my opinion. Better to use the common laws
> against murder and fraud and negligence.
Although there's a lot about Libertarianism that I don't agree with, I like the
"stop whining and start providing effective feedback" attitude; and I like the
idea of working a system to try to achieve one's goals, as opposed to
immediately using reactionary rhetoric to denounce the system itself.
But when public safety is at stake, I think it's important to have a system
more
pre-emptive than market feedback (or even than anticipated market feedback).
Federal standards serve this purpose. And I'm not sure why you suggest that
they
stifle improvement; I frequently see car ads which boast their products'
excellent safety records or superior fuel efficiency. It's obviously still a
selling point, and still a competitive issue.
Josh Spaulding
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Don Quixote puts away his lance
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| (...) Granted. No one said it would be easy to move in the direction I'd like to see us move in. But in turn I'm sure you'd admit that the potential is there for the regeneration of such a base. (...) I'll claim that there are some examples but not (...) (25 years ago, 29-Sep-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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