Recent Failures in Consumer Protection (original) (raw)

Failures of several recent efforts in consumer protection have made the exposure of their causes necessary if we are to uproot problems which threaten rational, safe buyer behavior. Indeed, we clearly see the presence of a "Catch 22" phenomenon in the present state of consumerism efforts. Review of Consumerism Not surprisingly, but unfortunately, consumerism means different things to different groups and entities. For example, to the new militant activists in the area, it is simply caveat venditor, or let the seller beware. To business it has meant, at least in some quarters, a threat to free enterprise and capitalism. Peter Drucker defines it as follows: "Consumerism means that the consumer looks upon the manufacturer as somebody who is interested but who really does not know what the consumer's realities are. He regards the manufacturer as somebody who has not made the effort to find out, who does not understand the world in which the consumer lives, and who expects the consumer to be able to make distinctions which the consumer is neither willing nor able to make." 1 Accordingly, if we consider marketing as the process of identifying and satisfying customer needs and wants, and the desire to make a profit, consumerism can exist California Management Review