From: ingraham@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (James Ingraham)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.marrou,alt.politics.libertarian
Subject: Re: Libertarian Platform
Date: 17 Nov 92 20:52:29 GMT
Followup-To: alt.politics.marrou
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <Bxv9oH.Mt@encore.com> rcollins@encore.com (Roger Collins) writes:
>mrh@centerline.com (Mike Huben) writes:
>>Labelling standards and terminology that provide real information to
>>customers is something NO industry has ever voluntarily provided because
>>producers and consumers are adversaries.
>
>Nonsense.  Try to sell a PC without telling customers how much memory or
>disk space it has, or try telling it in something other than MB.  You
>may find some, but they won't be popular, and won't be in business long.
>The same would happen with food labels.  Would you rather buy food
>without meaningful labels?  I wouldn't.  Who would?  Certainly not
>enough to make it a popular practice among producers.
>
>Regarding "...because producers and consumers are adversaries," what do
>you say to someone who insists that the earth is flat?  I give up.

There is one problem with using the computer industry as a base for food
label laws.  I can run chkdsk (I'm an IBM'er) and see exactly how much
RAM and harddrive space I've got.  It's not quite so easy to figure out
how much what is in a can of Chef Boy-ar-dee.  Another thing; since we all
have to go out and find everything out on our own, shall we all become
chemists so that we can evaluate what things are in each and every food 
product we buy?  Computer scientists so we can tell if our RAM cache is
20 ns or 19ns?  Electrical engineers to determine if our appliances,
stereo's, and T.V.'s are really going to last ten years?  Pharmacists
so we know the drugs we're getting are really going to do some good?
This ignores a fundamental aspect of a market economy; specialization.  
I'm a double major in electrical engineering and Descision Sciences, (the
tree from which business, finance, management, management information 
systems, and several others branch out), and I simply do not have time to
take enough classes in journalism to really be able to dissect a newspaper
or CNN.  Granted, I pick up some minimal skills in many areas, but I can talk
a hell of a lot better about the computer architecture than I can about
drugs.  Who do we trust to make sure that things outside of our specialty
is done right?  The government has been taking that role.  We trust the 
government to take care of certain things because we CAN'T manage everything.
Just try going to ten different newsgroups you've never signed on to; the
information flow is too large to digest in any reasonable amount of time.
Personally, I'd rather give money to someone like _Consumer Reports_ then
to the U.S. government, and I rely far more on _PC Magazine_ for information
about computers than any law could ever give me.  Why aren't there things like
this for food?  Beats me.  But the point is, it is stupid, inefficient, and
impossible for everyone to try to learn everything about everything; go 
back and study basic microeconomics: specialization is the key to any market
system.  So SOMEBODY has to provide me with valuable information about what
I eat.  _Consumer reports_ for pizza?  Sounds good to me!  Beats the hell
out of making a mandatory law.  Only problem is figuring out what's really
in all the food; it's much more difficult than you'd think.  Hell, we can't
even crack Mrs. Fields cookie recipie!

-James
University of Pennsylvania, 
	School of Engineering and Applie Science/Wharton School of Business
ingraham@eniac.seas.upenn.edu

I don't disclaim ANYTHING, dammit!