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Politicians at every level of government recognize that consumerism has become a vote-catching issue. There has been a surge of activity to protect the consumer from fraud in the marketplace, and sometimes from his own bad judgment. Under a new law in Massachusetts, people who are fast-talked by door-to-door salesmen into signing contracts for unwanted goods can now cancel the deal within ten days. California's Department of Professional and Vocational Standards has instituted a television-repair inspection system that has trimmed $15 million a year from fraudulent fix-it bills. The department tests the honesty of any suspicious repair outfit by planting deliberately broken sets in private homes; if the repairman makes unnecessary charges, his license is lifted.
The Belated Protectors
Nearly all major cities and about 22 states have created offices of consumer affairs, many of them headed by attractive and energetic women with whom housewives identify easily. The national prototype is Mrs. Virginia Knauer, 54, a Philadelphia grandmother who served as Pennsylvania's consumer adviser and last April was chosen by President Nixon to head the federal consumer program. Bess Myerson Grant, the 1945 Miss America who is now New York City's commissioner of consumer affairs, recently sent inspectors out to test restaurant hamburgers. When nearly one-third of the burgers failed to meet the city's all-beef standards, Mrs. Grant complained loudly about "shamburgers," 156 people were subpoenaed, and those found guilty were fined. During her first year as Chicago's commissioner of consumer sales, Jane Byrne issued 1,144 tickets and collected $58,000 in fines. Some supermarkets were caught placing "cents off" labels on items that were selling at the regular price or even higher.
All too few consumer watchdogs, however, are effective. The limp performance results partly from austerity budgets and from the reluctance of many juries to convict businessmen under criminal codes. The appointees to consumer-affairs jobs frequently have little experience in government. California's Kay Valory, consumer counsel to Governor Ronald Reagan, has not testified in three years before any committee considering consumer legislation. She recently made the extraordinary recommendation that buyers shun the "very narrow" testing reports of Consumers Union in favor of the handbook of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Winning in Washington
It has been left to the Federal Government to provide most of the protection for U.S. consumers. Congress has already enacted at least 20 major pieces of consumer legislation despite strenuous efforts by most industry lobbyists to defeat them. The lobbyists have been considerably more successful in keeping enforcement of the new rules to a minimum. The favorite lobbyist tactic is to persuade Congress to provide only token funds to administer new laws. Enforcement of the 1966 Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, adopted over vigorous objections from the food industry, has been all but abandoned by the FDA: it has funds to pay only two employees to do the job. The FTC initially received enough money to inform retailers of the new truth-in-lend-ing law, effective last July 1, but not enough to enforce it.
Six weeks ago, President Nixon called on