Competition Protects Consumers, Politicians Protect Themselves :: Politics Political Essays

Competition Protects Consumers, Politicians Protect ThemselvesBalti more Sun political author H. L. Mencken once warned, The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the human beings alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an eternal series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. As saviors politicians then announce an array of political relation programs to safeguard a grateful electorate from one hobgoblin or another. For that safety, taxpayers argon forced to cough up billions of dollars to finance government agencies like the federal Trade Commission (FTC), Consumer Product sentry duty Administration (CPSC), and the Food and dose Administration (FDA).What is it that ultimately protects the consumer? Its not government but competition - some producers competing with each other for our dollars. What motivates a grocery store manager to wee-wee sales, introduce new products and services and incessantly search for other shipway to please us and make us loyal customers? The easy break up is that the manager seeks greater profits, but profits cannot be simply decreed because he has no power to force us to shop at his store. He must lure us into his store pleasing us more than our next best alternative - his competitor down the street.The animation of the manager and his employees, would be much easier if they could get legislators to write level vie sector laws to protect consumers against cutthroat competition. A level playing field law might mandate that all grocers charge the same prices, shit the same items, and provide selfsame(a) customer services. That way competition would be reduced. Right now your grocer and his employees know that if he charges high prices and provides poor fiber service, you will take your business elsewhere. That would result in less business, reject profits and possibly bankruptcy. But if the manager and his employees could persuade lawmakers to enact a level playing field law, it woul d be a different story.The identical principle applies to workers. Some people think labor unions, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and token(prenominal) wage laws protect the worker. Labor unions, OSHA regulations and minimum wages laws do protect the jobs and income of some workers but at the get down of other workers jobs and income. Labor unions and many labor laws are little more than a collusion against other workers. Union leaders argue that their serious to strike is their most powerful tool in their pursuit of higher(prenominal) wages and better working conditions.