“What Happens When a Man Takes on the Feds”

“What Happens When a Man Takes on the Feds”

 This is a very disturbing article (“What Happens When a Man Takes on the Feds”, Opinion, August 31 – September 1, 2013) but not surprising.  It reinforces the danger of an all-powerful government which, as in this case, can lead to the arbitrary and oppressive human behavior of regulators.  People sometimes forget that regulators have the same emotions as the rest of us and can act on them, as seems apparent in this case.  The regulators diminish the value of the product while “Two and a half million adults spent $30 on a product”.  Seems that might be an indication of value to consumers.  Why not the regulators?  But Mr. Zucker is wrong when he says, “It’s not the government’s place to say what has value and what doesn’t…”  That is exactly what the government does.  It believes that its elite regulators are highly intelligent while the “free” American consumer is ignorant and needs saving from itself.  We have elected our politicians who are causing this disconnect to happen.  To my way of thinking, the Internet easily, cheaply and smartly could replace many regulators and all of the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.  The U. S. government could sponsor an Angie’s List kind of site where we consumers can post product reviews and we consumers can see the experience of others before committing our dollars.  The site could distill reviews to make them easily understandable to everyone.  Lousy or dangerous products would fail in the marketplace, desirable products of value would succeed in the marketplace.  How easy is that?  If we – as our Founding Fathers did – believe in We The People to democratically elect politicians, why not to democratically elect products?

 

Laura Bice

2201 Third Avenue

Seattle  WA  98121

(206) 902-7207