Paternalism Again
Remember paternalism? It came up in the chapter on biomedical ethics, too. Paternalism comes into the consumer world when the government does things to either benefit us or protect us from hurting ourselves. It's like saying, “Here, Johnny , I know what's best you for , even if you don’t, so I'll go ahead and do it. " The problem with this kind of paternalism is this: How likely is it that the government will really know what's best for you, and do a good job of protecting you from bad things? Maybe you could even accept someone who knows you really well trying to do what's best for you…. but the government? They know nothing about you !
This isn't to say that the state takes a totally "hands off" approach to products that make it to market. On the contrary, in order for something to get to the market, it has to pass safety inspections, and meet industry regulations. There are different regulations for different products- so new cars have to meet certain standards for the car industry, toys have to meet different standards, and so, too, do food and drugs that get put on the market. We don't want just any old thing getting put out there for us to consume. (Especially not cars with exploding gas tanks!)