“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
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