ABSTRACT
Consumption is the sole end and the purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only in so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. The time-honored doctrine of consumer sovereignty maintains that the final authority in determining production and prices is the consumer. The publication of Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965, an effective muckraking attack on a popular General Motors car, the Corvair, marked the beginning of a full-blown consumer protection movement. Early seeds of the consumer movement were planted at the start of the twentieth century, when a variety of state and federal laws aimed at maintaining the purity of food and drug products were passed. Liberals justify the high and escalating costs of consumer protection by appealing to cost-benefit analysis. Economic concentration has given producers great freedom in establishing and maintaining their own price and quality standards.
