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From: kfl%mx.lcs.mit.edu@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: Re: Harmful products & the free market
Message-ID: <12231590987.47.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sun, 17-Aug-86 15:36:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: RED.12231590987.47.MCGREW
Posted: Sun Aug 17 15:36:02 1986
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    From: ~joe testa~ <TESTA-J%OSU-20@ohio-state.ARPA>

    >From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU>
    >
    >  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.

  Not at all.  One can simply tell the news media about the worms in
your competitor's hamburger, and let them do all the work.

    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.

  It might.  And some THIRD competitor might expose BOTH of them, and
take their shares of the market.
  There are also organizations such as Consumer's Union.
                                                              ...Keith

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