Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: What links?

Make or break?
TB — (archived)

Other than some issue where Consumer Reports has found out that something explodes when you plug it in, I challenge you to show me one product that CR "made or broke." They theoretically don't allow their name to be used in advertising, although I've seen some companies cut it pretty close.

Like Wikipedia, I find it to be a good starting point for finding information, and I have found them, to the best of my limited research, to be scrupulously honest. They don't seem to artificially favor the products of small companies over bloated corporations, or foreign products over domestic.

Incidentally, Underwriter's Laboratories is pretty much the same kind of outfit, although they've become almost transparent over the years.

An idealized free-market society would have less of one-source government regulators and more private consumer watchdog companies. Companies would pay them to have their products tested and certified. The product would carry a stamp to that effect, similar to the UL tag. The potential for corruption is reduced by competition: you can see where a consumer testing outfit would just LOVE to catch a big competitor taking cash under the table for a good rating. They would be watching each other even more carefully than the producers.

In fact, the potential for corruption seems to be a lot higher for one-source government watchdogs. Someone always has to be watching the watchmen.

A company sure of its product might boast stamps from several consumer testing outfits. Might not be a perfect solution, but it would work.

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