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["Trevor Peck" <trevor AT ISBNread.com>]

> James, my understanding is that the Libertarian Party would choose to
> eliminate most government activities. How far down the bureaucratic food
> chain does that extend? Specifically, what is the position on consumer
> protection laws and their enforcement? Let the consumer beware? Or give
> some level of protection? I'm wondering about things like meat
> inspection, food products labeling, and limits on jury awards in
> malpractice suits.

Hi Gene,

 I'm not James, but you may remember a few discussions with me from years
back. I don't have 2 cents to throw in here, but I know someone who 
does... Dr. Mary Ruwart. She wrote a book called "Healing Our World" which 
is available online for free: http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/ . She also 
writes a column called "Short Answers to the Tough Questions" (and a book 
by the same title, but I don't think it's available free) I'll quote a bit 
from the column archives 
(http://www.theadvocates.org/ruwart/categories_list.php). There are many 
more topics there, and more answers on topic to your question. I just 
picked the first three that matched closest:

 Question 

"If Libertarianism were to become America's dominant political philosophy,
what would be done to ensure that the powerful remain accountable to those
that they may harm? Would corporations, for example, be banned? It seems 
to me that there's something wrong with the idea that someone can cause
tremendous harm (sometimes deliberately) and walk away relatively
unscathed. The Ford Pinto case comes to mind, as does the case of cab
companies that incorporate each cab so that the most they stand to lose
from a terrible accident is the value of the cab."  

Answer 

"Restitution would be the norm in a libertarian society, even if 
compensation had to be made over time. Bankruptcy, for individuals or
businesses, would not relieve the guilty of their duty to restore their
victims. In a libertarian society, the state would be unable to grant a
business limited liability, which is essentially what a corporate charter
entails." 

***************************************

Question 

"There seems to be a growing problem with herbal remedies such as ginseng,
melatonin, and others. They are not regulated by the FDA, which should be 
a good thing according to libertarians. However, it has been found that 
many of the most popular ginseng products have no ginseng content. Also, 
some ginseng products contain alcohol, which is not specified on the 
packaging, and which can be bad for people who, for health reasons, need 
to stay away from alcohol. And then you have melatonin, which is usually 
marketed in doses which some experts consider to be thirty or forty times 
what is effective. What would be the libertarian way to handle this chaos? 


Answer 

"In a libertarian society, consumers could buy from a firm with quality
'insurance' in the form of independent certifications. Some herbal
companies are already starting to provide such information on request. 

"Consumers could sue companies for fraud if they were sold a 'ginseng'
product without ginseng. They could also avoid products that don't 
disclose all ingredients. Some consumer organizations and health food 
stores do publicize such information today, but not in a systematic way 
(yet). 

 [note from Trevor: Today these companies are protected in their bad 
practices by exactly those regulations touted to protect the consumer...
and it's not hard to see why. When you consider that businesses, by 
design, have only profit as a motive, why wouldn't they spend money 
lobbying to get regulations written that protect them in taking advantage 
of the consumer? And once they've taken that leap, it's not hard to 
disguise it as consumer protection, since today's bills are thousands of 
pages long and not even read by those who vote on them, let alone any 
consumers!]

"Most consumers still feel that if a product is on the market, the 
government has somehow tested and approved it. Without the heavy hand of
regulation that we have today, most consumers would probably buy products
that had independent certification of some sort, even if the cost was
higher. Today, most people don't feel they need certification and are less
willing to pay for it." 

***************************************

Question 

"While listening to TV coverage of the California energy crisis, I had 
this thought: `How can libertarianism work when people and companies are 
so determined to put their own gains ahead of the rest of society?' 

"I have been hearing how many power plants are being taken offline for
`repairs' so that the companies many jack up their rates. Under a
libertarian government, there would be no regulation of these businesses
and they could (and would) charge as much as the market can bear. 

"What is to control the profiteers and price gougers in a libertarian
society? How do we justify any control or none at all? This issue is one
that has real impact on people's lives and I need to know how to answer 
the question." 

Answer 

"In a libertarian society, consumers rule. If a company tries to 
overcharge their customers, their competitors can offer consumers a better
deal. People choose the businesses that serves them best. Profit follows
service. 

"To avoid this regulation by the consumers, many companies have tried to
increase prices by colluding to fix prices. However, these `cartels'
invariably fail because whichever company violates the agreement first --
and give consumers the best deal -- wins the business. Thus, the free
market is self-regulating. 

"In California, regulations required utilities to sell their generating
plants and buy only from a single state-administered source. This 
monopoly, mistakenly referred to as `deregulation' has made competition 
illegal. If consumers are displeased with management (or plants being 
taken off-line to escalate repair costs), they cannot vote with their 
dollars and take their business to another company without encountering 
the same problems. 

"In summary, the aggression of state regulation allows greedy companies to
exploit consumers by destroying freedom of choice. In a libertarian
society, companies can only serve their own greed by giving their 
customers a better deal than a competitor would. That's what makes 
`service with a smile' possible."   

***************************************

 I guess I did have 2 cents to throw in there. Oh well, I've been wrong
before. :-)

 - Trevor.

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