Your correspondent does bring up some interesting points, but you might advise them to use a spell checker. They also point out problems, but offer no solutions. From the SUV comment, I'm guessing this person is an Obamatron that thinks the government should make these decisions for you.
> Many things limit the public from making informed decisions about products.
> Time: doing research takes time, most people are unwilling to take the time to do it.
There are a couple of factors here. As a society, being conditioned to expect "instant gratification" is one of them. I'm reminded of the PhD student that came into the LoC and requested a printout of everything that had ever been written on their dissertation topic... Needless to say, they left less than happy.
> Lack of infomation: for every peice of relivent infomation on the internet, there are 20 peices on found online.
They obviously mean "not found online". They are actually off on that number. Of the available information, roughly 1% is online, and only 1% of that can be found via a search engine - the rest is in the invisible or deep web and is created dynamically, so can't be indexed. There are some search engines that will crawl a corner of it with your query, but it's a tiny corner. Also, many of these sites are commercial.
> Lack of research skills:
Most people think wikipedia is either always accurate or always inaccurate, and have no idea how to treat secondary sources of infomation. And you expect people to make informed decisions?
There is a reason Wikipedia citations are not allowed in academia. They are, however a good place to look for keywords/phrases, ancillary information and citations to the literature.
We can thank the public fool system for this problem (Lack or research skills). Research really isn't taught in high schools anymore, beyond maybe a lecture on search engines (where the student probably knows more than the teacher) and taking a class off to take everyone to the library for a crash course in how to use the card catalog and the basics of the Dewey Decimal or LoC cataloging system. Worse, at the University I went to there were few research classes offered and you had to be in a particular major to take them, as they were specific to that major. There was one "honors" research class, but the instructor got to choose their students and it was very basic.
Most people have never accessed information on microfiche or film, used vertical files, ERIC, FBIS, GovDocs, or tracked down gray literature. Most use public libraries and are unfamiliar with university, government, specialist and private libraries. Public libraries leave a lot to be desired unless you are looking for a novel, how to make sock puppets or build a bird feeder. However, every one I've been in has subscribed to consumers reports!
If you go into a brick and mortar bookstore, you will be lucky if you can find one or two books on library research as opposed to online research.
As to online research, most people have no clue about advanced google syntax, +, -, quotes, that stemming is used and words like "the" are thrown out, site:http:// ... that anything past 6-8 keywords is ignored, that a string is a single keyword, or that if you re-order your query terms you will get radically different results, and so on... Most grad students I know are unaware of the commercial databases available to them, and then there is also a learning curve in many cases as new search syntax must me learned. The availability of these databases is also a problem as most are marketed to businesses and they are expensive.
> Ignorance:
Most people simple don't understand the ramifications of their choices as consumers. Just as most people do not realise the innumerable ways in which their lives have been improved by science, most also not able to run a cost benifit analysis on the foods they purchase. Without this, a true free market cannot function
I think we are talking nutritional knowledge and math skills here. Again, if the public fool system spent a bit less time teaching PC BS and focused on the basics...
I think the author is off base here in a couple of regards, for one, consumer research is very different than other kinds of research. If something has a UL label or a good writeup in consumer reports, you can count on a good product - Unless you buy it at Walmart because while the product will look exactly the same, it's been manufactured with substandard materials and workmanship per Walmart contract to get a better price. Reviews in most magazines are not to be trusted, as you will always find a full page add for said product in that same issue. However, if you search the web there are many review type sites were actual customers have left comments about their experiences. In this way, online product research can be very effective.
>I have never said that they are complete slaves, however, advertising and other forms of psychological purchase control, such as raising the temperature in shops and lay out items do have a major impact on people purchasing habits. While this is the case, in an unrestrained market, there is an innevitable trend towards monopoly.
On layout - yes, name brand expensive items tend to be at eye level, better deals are more to the bottom or top shelves. End of isle displays, and so on. There is considerable deception at work here by major chains. For example, in advertising supplements, people assume the items are on sale. They often are not. Likewise, the trend with bonus cards, prices are marked up so you can "get a deal", were other places you'd get the sale price by default. In electronics in particular there are all sorts of games. "branding" CPU's and not telling you how fast they are, printers for a song, but you pay out the nose for replacement ink cartridges, and at least with chains, the visible specs will be minimal and on a card. Most items are designed to break and if they last too long they are discontinued, along with support for them.
As to the monopoly comment, monopolies don't normally exist in an unrestrained environment. They require government intervention to create artificial advantage for their survival.
They also practice really scummy tactics. If a Walmart or Home Depot moves into an area, they normally under price their merchandise until the competition (local shops) have been driven out of business. As a rule, 2.5 local jobs will be lost for every new Walmart job - sounds a lot like the "green collar" initiative, except that Walmart Jobs tend to stay. This doesn't always work I know of one Home Depot that moved in across the street from a long standing family run hardware store that had customer loyalty, a good selection, staff that knew their field and were willing to help and quick service. All things the Home Depot lacked. The Home Depot was the one shuttering their doors this time.
> Oh and you suppose that american purchasing habits for large, very expensive, unfuel effient vehicle which most have no actual use for is a natural trend do you?
Before there were SUV's there were station wagons and mini-vans. People want something they can haul kids and stuff around in. Try moving or going camping in a VW bug sometime.
-t
