A/C in Action: The AP Case

[Phil153]

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Note that Consumer Reports is non-profit, highly reliable, widely regarded as trustworthy, and in fact is calling out companies that the government already is not calling out.

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And they do a great job. ISO is another great example of an organization that voluntarily builds quality and safety standards.

But Consumer Reports has no power - the have the same problem that we do with the AP scandal. They rely on consumers actually reading and understanding their content, which is a small percentage of users. And then these consumers have to vote with their dollars, which many won't out of laziness, indifference, not knowing the source of a product, or being poor and having few choices. Most people are in favor of saving the environment, but they happily buy paper from clearfelled forests because they simply don't know without a lot of time consuming research.

And given the fact that manufacturers can hide the chain of ownership (and 10x more in the absence of regulations), and that retail chains have an interest in buying cheap products and hiding controversial sources, I don't hold out much hope for people being held accountable.