The Fine Line of Consumer Protection & Babysitting
Posted by Cap in Even More Ramblings |
Where should we draw the line between consumer protection and consumer babysitting?
You know how sometimes you’ll hear a story of a person being scammed so bad that you feel utterly terrible for them — and at other times, you’ll hear a story and think to yourself, this poor sucker should have known better?
Now, scams are scams. Regardless of how clever or elaborate they are, there should always be plenty of regulations and policies in place from the government to protect consumers from various types of fraud and scams.
The trouble comes when you reach the “gray” area, with stuff like this credit card offer and this installment loan for computers — both of which are extremely crappy deals. With federal law such as the Truth in Lending Act, the rates and terms for these offers are disclosed to the consumer, but unfortunately many people will still sign on to these deals — probably because of their inability to fully understand the disclosed high rates and fees.
This of course brings us to personal responsibility; after all, a person shouldn’t have to rely on warning boxes or caution labels to make decisions. If for whatever reason they don’t understand the information provided to them, the responsible thing to do is to make clear of all the terms and condition before proceeding further.
Still, it would be pretty interesting to see how the current average American household credit card debt of $8,000 will be affected, if a big fat red warning sticker is attached to every credit card solicitations. Lower household debt or more red stickers in the trash can?
December 27th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Speaking of babysitting consumers.
December 27th, 2006 at 8:12 am
Credit cards especially could come with flashing red lights, a personalized chart showing you exactly how many hours you have to work to just pay on the interest and skull & cross bones decals and people would still use them with no thought whatsoever to the consequences.
Using the favorite mind control saying from the credit card commercials, we have come to be conditioned to think we “DESERVE” to have “IT ALL” right now, damn the consequences.
December 27th, 2006 at 11:16 am
There has to be some balance between consumers and creditors. Consumers should know the consequences of credit cards. Creditors/businesses should disclose the terms in simple laymen’s terms. The small type legalese is hard enough to read let alone decipher. On the other hand, consumers should know better. The system works if you understand the game. Here’s an article about internet loan scams
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/22/AR2006122201279.html
December 29th, 2006 at 6:36 am
Shouldn’t the warning label actually state “Warning, irresponsible use of this product can ruin your life” rather than the product itself? Pin the blame where it belongs.
January 18th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Given that people will throw away user manuals and walk right through doors saying “Do not enter” and such, would such stickers really work? I think a lot of people would just peel off the sticker and throw it away without even looking at it. And such people are the types who would fall for scams anyway.