Both pieces of legislation before us today H.R. 3011 and H.R. 3022 would provide consumers with more information about these taxes through mandates on service providers. Both of these objectives are desirable. 3 Pricing and Information Information is a costly commodity. This is true in the marketplace for telecommunications services just as it is true of the marketplace for shoes, fresh salmon, or stocks. It is also equally true with regard to information that explains the price that citizens pay for government services.
Prices play a key role in the transmission of important information about goods and services.
Changes in price signal changes in scarcity and allow consumers to adjust their use of a product accordingly. And therefore it is no surprise that consumers are best suited to determine which of the competing goods would meet their demand. It is prices that provide the information necessary to make these choices. When government policies affect prices even the price of information they can distort the market by altering the prices consumers see in the marketplace. To avoid such distortions, the government s impact on price should be clarified wherever possible.