The Consumer's Role; C. Essock

THE CONSUMER'S ROLE Cyd Essock IT takes little effort to be a con sumer. The simple act of buying a good or service is the only require ment for entering the club of con sumerism, for in the free market economy the consumer is a special person. Unlike other economic sys tems, the free market economy, in particular the free market economy of the United· States, caters to the consumer, appealing to his wants and attempting to satisfy .his de sires. Each individual consumer, con sciously or unconsciously, deter mines the fate of. the goods and ser vices on the market each time he chooses one product instead of another. Each penny that is spent on anyone product is the equivalent of Miss Essock is a student at the University of Wis consin, Whitewater, studying journalism, business, and library science and pursuing a career in free lance writing. an economic vote in favor of that particular product and against its competitors.

Therefore, a single consumer and his choices are important, for each consumer's economic vote, when added to the votes of other consum ers, determines which consumer goods will remain on the market. Obviously, the entrepreneur will not want to manufacture product A if the consumer does not like product A and prefers to purchase product B. With the possible exception of the very rich, the individual consumer has limited monetary resources and must budget his expenditures. How he determines his marginal utility will determine how much he will spend, how much he will save or invest, and on what he will make his expenditures. However, the free market econ omy depends upon more than just 131 132 THE FREEMAN March the consumer being able to buy a rib roast or a refrigerator when he so chooses. For the consumer lives in an intangible world of thoughts, ideas, ethics, and morals; and his attitudes toward these cultural as pects of life influence and determine his philosophies and actions. He is just as obligated to consume wisely in this intangible world as he is in the material world in which he physically lives.

Thus the reins of the free market economy lie in the hands of the con sumer. And the consumer, because he is in the driver's seat, has an obligation to consume wisely. Un fortunately, too many consumers are either unaware of this obliga tion, or do not take it seriously, if indeed they even accept the fact that they are obligated to anyone or any thing. Man's Greatest Asset The human mind is man's greatest asset. Without the ability to think and reason, the individual is of no use to himself or to others; for the thinking man is an active man, active in using his mind to make choices that affect not only himself but the society around him. However, unlike the instincts that birds and animals are born with, man's knowledge and understand ing must be acquired through his own endeavors, for he enters this world naked mentally as well as physically. The man who covets knowledge and understanding will find much to learn.

It is Proverbs that tells us: Wis dom is before him that hath under standing .... Get wisdom, get UJ;l derstanding. By applying this thought to eco nomics, one can see that an under standing of the free market envi ronment in which the consumer finds himself helps him to develop the wisdom necessary to consume wisely. King Solomon was known throughout the world for his wis dom-his common sense solutions to problems. This is not to say that all problems can be solved by using just common sense, for they cannot; but the consumer can make sensible de cisions by wisely considering his possible choices. The choices the consumer makes in the intangible world of thoughts and actions are primarily influenced by what he hears and sees. That the forms of communication in a country are immediately taken over when a communistic or socialistic regime comes into power is evidence of the importance of communication systems. If the means of introducing ideas to the masses can be controlled, what they think and thus what they are can be controlled. By controlling the mind, one can control the body.

Thus, freedom of the press and 1978 THE CONSUMER'S ROLE 133 media-newspapers, magazines, books, advertising, television, radio-is a vital necessity if this country is to maintain a capitalistic, free market economy. The field of communication is the link between the consumer, the entrepreneur, and the government. PromotingIntervention One of the dangers threatening the free market economy in the United States today is the tendency of the press and media to advocate philosophies that favor government intervention. Since neither the eargate nor the eyegate is ever satisfied, the sound and visual media have an unlimited market for whatever they choose to present to the consumer; for the con sumer is always willing to hear and see more. ((Let the consumer be ware" can well be applied to this situation because only the consumer himself, through wisdom and under standing, is able to accept or reject the thoughts, ideas, ethics, and morals of others which are continu ally being fed to him. Only the con sumer himself is able to make the choice of what is wise and what is unwise. He will ultimately choose to control his own mind or will choose to let it be controlled for him by others.

Unfortunately, the consumer has not wisely considered his choices in the material world, and the foolish choices of his past are now darken ing his hope for a bright future. What has cast this shadow? The consumer, freed from the mental and physical controls placed on him during the depression of the 30's and the war of the 40's-his pocket amply filled with money breathed a sigh of relief and moved out of his house of bricks into a house of straw. In his eagerness to spend, he no longer chose to act as a knowledgeable, well-informed, rea soning consumer and this led him into compulsive buying and un sound choices. As a result, the consumer, instead of accepting responsiblity for his lackadaisical choices, blamed everyone but himself. Instead of cor recting a deteriorating situation by starting to consume wisely, he con tinued buying and complaining and did not change his habits. Washington, which had stepped into the void created when the demand-supply free market econ omy had been upset during these two decades, took note of the situa tion, took the entrepreneur to the woodshed, and took the consumer under its bureaucratic wing, trying to cure the consumer's very real ills with the wrong medicine-interven tion in the market place.

Thus, the free market economy found itself being pushed down the road which leads to socialism, for government intervention eventually 134 THE FREEMAN March leads to the elimination of the mar ket's reason for being: the making of a profit, an effective tool by. which business determines how best to serve the consumer. While there is little doubt that some entrepreneurs will willingly ~~fleece" the consumer in a free mar ket economy, the problem is not to be solved by the government. Once the government gets its bureaucra tic foot in the door, the choice the consumer may want to make may not be the choice he is allowed to make. Consumer Responsibility The trouble with controls in a free market economy is that the gov ernment tends to consider the con sumer right and the entrepreneur wrong. It puts most of the respon sibilities for the success of the free market economy on the shoulders of the entrepreneur and little on the shoulders of the consumer. But the free market economy is very clear in telling the consumer that he is in control and that he has the obliga tion to consume wisely. However, socialism is telling the consumer to sit back and relax, that government will take over his obligations and save him the trouble of consuming wisely.

For the intellectual consumer who values his freedom to choose and reason, the inroads socialism has made into the free market economy of the United States under the guise of government's helping hand, should be a cause for alarm. Our capitalist economy has regressed to the point where government seem ingly wants to allow only enough freedoms to give the illusion of con sumer leadership and freedom in the market place. As long as the majority of the consumers can be convinced that they still act as the hub of the wheel of the free market economy, able to influence the entrepreneur to pro duce what they want, they are satis fied. The consumer may even mentally reject the idea that he is being con trolled through intervention in the market place if enough of his de mands are being supplied and the decisions made by the so-called con sumer protection agencies do not seriously impede his consumption.

Government control is always what happens to the ~~otherguy," never to himself. His eyes are mentally blinded, for he does not want to see. Our founding fathers came to this country fully aware of the dictato rial nature of government controls. One of the safeguards they estab lished was the division of power in government. They realized that each branch of government would guard its powers jealously and not surrender them to centralized con trol, necessary in any type of dic tatorship. The various branches of 1978 THE CONSUMER'S ROLE 135 the federal, state, and local govern ments were designed to fight to keep and preserve their governing rights. A check and balance on each other, the system itself would discourage government control. Those leaders set up our government not by acci dent but as a well-planned, thought~ ful system, based on a constitution which divided government powers in every way possible.

Personal Freedom Requires Limited Government Government powers in the new nation were severely controlled, for it was felt that the government's power should be limited to national defense and. the court system. The only power they felt really necessary in the government was one which would permit strong enough con trols to repress any person. or per sons who endangered the freedoms of the majority who were existing peacefully. Realizing that the gov" ernment which governs best governs least, the founding fathers incorpo~ rated the principles of this idea into the constitution. Over and over again history has shown that man's freedom is in in verse proportion to government rule, for man is only free when gov ernment is contained. The more fragmented the government, the more freedom man gains. One often hears the view ex pressed that mankind is basically good, but in Romans we are warned that ((there is none righteous no not one" and Jeremiah adds that ((the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." In other words, man must be continually aware of the necessity to dIscipline his thoughts and actions. It is easy for man to be evil; it is hard for man to be good.

This is why man, who finds him self in a position of power, will tend to put himself first and his fellow man last. This is why power, in whatever form, is a potential dan ger. History has shown us wars, de pressions, and hatreds that have pit;. ted man' against man, brother against brother, and parent against child, and at the root lies the lust for power. Therefore, when the consumer starts applying the above truths of good and evil to economics, he can see that for his own personal well being it is to his advantage to work at being wary so that he is able to consume wisely. Our liberties and our freedoms are to be cherished and can easily be lost because they are literally tied to the apron strings of a free market economy. Two Choices There are only two choices: right or wrong-truth or error. Human intellect must separate the two and apply truth to capitalism, because if it does not, error will prevail and the 136 THE FREEMAN free market economy will cease to exist. Unless man's mind is free, his body never can be.

For the wages of consumer igno rance is government control, the parent of bureaucracy and socialism; but the wages of con sumer wisdom and understanding is Consumerism freedom and liberty. The stakes are high. Only through the human action of intellectual choice can the consumer hope to play his part in the salvation of the free market economy from the very real threat of eventual domina tion by government. i IDEAS ON LIBERTY WE can protect the consumer, but do we really want to close the market and forego all improvements in products and services? Do we really want to substitute administrative dictate from Capitol Hill for individ ual buyer decision? Regardless of any new agency that might be created to represent the consumer, and regardless of the growth of consumerism, the only true reading of the consumer is to be obtained from her actions in the market place. There can be no true spokesman for the consumer other than the actions of the consumer herself. She can rationalize her actions but, try as she might, she cannot explain them in full. That is why she cannot tell you what new or modified goods and services would better serve her needs.

In marketing research I have spent the better part of my life ringing consumer doorbells in a futile effort to get them to tell me how some product or market service can be improved or what new products or services they want, only to find that in our conversation they failed either to visualize their alternatives or identify the true values to which they in final analysis respond. The consumer, in her mute but effective way, can only bring all her value considerations to bear in response to what is offered her. She has her own built-in protective device. If you displease her-if you do not offer her the best alternative-if indeed you deceive her in terms of her own values, she simply and quickly votes H no" in the market place. That is the miracle of the free market-the miracle the consumerist refuses to recognize. MAX E. BRUNK Dennis Bechara The Market for Labor THROUGHOUT HISTORY there have been numerous schools of thought dealing with the determination of wages and the proper role of work ers. Most of these economic philosophies have opposed the free market method of production and employment and have sought, by various means, to alter our allegedly unjust system. Therefore, in order to understand these proposed means and their inherent fallacies, it is necessary to analyze how wages are determined in the free market.