Let the Buyer Beware

In the sixteenth century, markets were simple open-air affairs where producers assembled their products and buyers came to purchase them. Products were relatively simple things--fruits and vegetables, livestock, cooking utensils, pieces of rudimentary furniture, clothing, etc. A buyer could examine each piece carefully and select the best of the lot for his purchase.

Cheating at such markets, however, was  not unknown. Small animals placed in bags were often offered for sale, for example, a piglet in a bag. Sometimes, however, the animal in the bag advertised as a piglet turned out to be a cat. So the practice of purchasing small animals in bags came to be referred to as buying a pig in a poke. And the expression took on the connotations of a fraudulent sale. If a prospective buyer, however, had sense enough to look inside the bag before buying it, he would often let the cat out of the bag, and this expression took on the connotations of revealing a fraud. All buyers at such markets were advised to beware. The Latin expression is caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.

It is, still, of course, good advice; however, it is now much harder to follow.

Technology has, in many ways, been a wondrous boon to mankind. However, it has also been fully utilized by the unscrupulous. There are few products in the marketplace today that can be carefully examined. Most, even simple appliances, are too complex for examination. Although the outer appearance my indicate a product of high quality, the parts inside, if examined, might reveal something entirely different.

Go to a grocery store and buy a can of dog food labeled chunky beef. If you ever find anything resembling a chunk in one, let me know. The contents consist of some sort of meaty mush. Of course, that's a fraud, but it's only dog food. So what?

Then go to the meat counter and examine the packaged bacon or pork chops. The visible pieces look meaty with a minimum of fat. But how many times have you gotten such a package home only to find considerably less meaty and more fatty pieces underneath? This, too, is fraud. But what can we do about it?

And don't even talk about computers and cars. Who can pick the best ones out just by just looking?

The upshot of this is that it is almost impossible for a buyer to protect himself in today's marketplace. And this turns a laissez faire economy into a environment which, in fact, legalizes unscrupulous fraud. It has become a haven for what would otherwise be considered criminal activity.

Businessmen continuously deny the need for regulation, claiming that there are only a few bad apples in the barrel, and that consumers can weed them out by not continuing to buy their products.  Would that it be so!

Producers have boundless opportunities to cheat, while buyers have miniscule opportunities to catch them. I am sure you all have seen the television commercial that extols the merits of the person who points out how much money his company can save by putting one fewer olive in the jar. And if this is true for one producer, it's true for every producer, and, although no consumer can catch on when it happens, all the producers become bad apples that cannot be weeded out.