Digital BW, The Print

Keith:
You and I share a passion for great images and the desire to create
them, but we come from different sides of the economic / political
spectrum. But, that's OK as this is a group about creating images. 
Bob Michaels

<snip>
> 
> To illustrate why government rules are necessary..
> 
> In a truly Laissez Faire system (as you support):  "traditional
> economics do much better than any government regulation", consumers 
> would be wholly subject to the rule of "caveat emptor" ("buyer 
> beware"). If they were injured by a defective product they could not 
> recover. 
> 
> Similarly, if the product did not perform as advertised, they could 
> not be guaranteed any compensation.  What then happens is you result 
> in not a "free market," but instead, a market highly skewed to favor 
> the monetary power of individual producers/companies.  In fact, in 
> such a system, the larger the company and its power, the less likely 
> a consumer is to be even able to acquire the information necessary 
> to "know" about the product they buy, or to recover for injuries 
> they receive.  Look back at the history of railroads and the "robber 
> barons" for what happens in such a market.
> 
> >Over the
> > years we've worried about regulating such virtual monopolies as 
> Xerox,
> > IBM, AT&T, even Wordstar (for us old timers) and their pricing
> > structures. I just view this issue is one of more educated 
> consumers
> > coming out ahead. More government regulation won't help anything. 
> 
> Ahh... But here we are again.  If all the information on inks 
> is "proprietary" and there are no "government rules" regulating fair 
> advertising, fraud, injury, etc., then how DOES the consumer EVER 
> get info...?
> 
> Your system sounds "oh so nice, and simple" so attractive.  
> Unfortunately, in practice it would be a nightmare of the first 
> order. If one EPSON cartridge in EVERY 1000 blew up and perhaps one 
> in 10 of those resulted in an eye injury, would you be willing to 
> forego suing EPSON if your eye was the one injured.  If your car is 
> defective and it catches on fire, or a defective transmission fails 
> causing you to run over a loved one, are you willing to tell us that 
> you PROMISE not to sue the manufacturer?  For that is what your 
> regime would pre-suppose - "no government regulation" means exactly 
> that - you would not be able to sue in court for your injuries.. 
> 
> With the number of products coming on the market daily it would be 
> impossible for even the most informed consumers to keep up.  Imagine 
> is we had to look up each and every ingredient on packages and cross-
> index them with other ingredients in the same product for safety and 
> efficacy... Not to mention with all our other products, drugs, etc, 
> AND then compare this all to a database of "safe" products (WHO the 
> heck would even keep such a database in your world I wonder - would 
> we need to pay to subscribe to this "voluntary" list? - so, only 
> those with enough discretionary cash would be worthy of receiving 
> safe products?).. Your world would make a simple trip to the 
> supermarket an educational experience worthy of granting a 
> bachelor's degree.
> 
> Nice idea Bob if we leaved in a utopian world of inidividuals who 
> never lied, cheated, and who would not put the safety of others 
> ahead of their own pocketbook.. 
> 
> Unfortunately, I AM an informed consumer, both on the products AND 
> the economics, so, feel free to set up "straw men" again for me 
> anytime..
> 
> Keith