Empowering Consumers

Hi. I'm the shorter, better looking Kevin (I don't have a cool picture yet). I also blog (much less frequently lately) at Coarse Evaluations. I'll try to contribute semi-regularly here...I like the idea of taking Econ Club to the blogosphere (Angel, have you thought about selling "Optimize This" shirts?).

To get started, I give you this letter I sent to the NYT today on Krugman's Op-Ed:

To the Editor:

Paul Krugman indicts poor regulation for recent food scares that have consumers worried about their groceries and have devastated some export markets (“Bad Cow Disease,” June 13). He’s right.

Where Krugman misleads is implying that more regulation is inevitably good regulation. It is the extent of the current regulatory regime that has entrenched big farm and food interests and hamstrung competition. The result? Companies have no incentive to self-regulate knowing USDA and FDA bureaucrats will ultimately be held responsible. And, it is nearly impossible for new companies to enter the market and feed consumers the products we want.

Not only do consumers have less choice, we also have less motivation to be informed buyers. A misguided willingness to trust fallible and poorly incentivized regulators helped create this situation.

If you want a safe food supply, then ease regulation, induce greater competition, and watch the power of reputation takeover.

That’s the guardian of free-market capitalism Milton Friedman espoused, not lawyers.

Kevin L. Richards