Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!ucbvax!OHIO-STATE.ARPA!testa-j%osu-20 From: testa-j%osu-20@OHIO-STATE.ARPA.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.politics Subject: Harmful products & the free market Message-ID: <12231590788.47.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Sun, 17-Aug-86 15:34:57 EDT Article-I.D.: RED.12231590788.47.MCGREW Posted: Sun Aug 17 15:34:57 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 17-Aug-86 22:45:21 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: testa-j%osu-20@ohio-state.arpa Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 24 Approved: poli-sci@red.rutgers.edu >From: "Keith F. Lynch" > > From: Steve Walton > > And manufacturers have a vested interest in hiding harmful > side-effects of products they sell. > > And their competitors have a vested interest in revealing these >effects. > Not necessarily. To take advantage of revealing what other companies are doing, a company would have to spend a lot of money in advertising. It might find it more profitable to produce their product even more cheaply, increasing the chance that it will also have harmful side effects to hide. Without some form of monitoring by an agency not concerned with making a profit, and with the *authority* to require safe products to be produced, the completely free market can evolve into a very dangerous place. -j.t. ------- -------