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Consumer pressure is one of the natural phases of an advanced industrial
society. As a society reaches a certain stage in development, concern over
consumer issues makes itself felt. The United States led the way, other
countries gradually followed suit.
The Consumers' Union of the United States was founded in the 1920's;
Ralph Nader began to make himself known as the American consumer
spokesman in the 1960s when he attacked the American car industry in his
book Unsafe at any Speed. He succeeded in getting certain cars withdrawn
from sale to the general public. He followed this by investigating other areas
where the consumer was at a disadvantage as a result of decisions by
manufacturers, retailers or government. He has been spectacularly successful,
largely because as a lawyer he knows how to function within the American
legal system.
His effect on British development has principally been as an example.
Very close parallels cannot be drawn, because the British legal system is
different. Until recently, confrontation and direct action has not been the
British way of settling matters; settlement has been reached by gentlemanly
chats and invitations to lunch and a visit to the works or factory afterwards.
This combination of factors has a lot to do with the reasons why consumer
action in this country has only come alive over the last decade or so.
Nevertheless, inflation has also had a hand in it. The price of buying
equipment for one's life and home comes to be questioned at a time of rapid
inflation and uncertain economic growth. The goods and services are
available in ever-increasing abundance but for many individuals the money
doesn't go round them all. The pressure on incomes both from inflation and
from the wide attractive range of goods on which money can be spent means
that people begin to look more critically at prices. Having spent their money,
they resent the occasions when there is some cause to complain about goods
or services which do not come up to expectations. And on attempting to
complain, they find themselves too often defeated by the stone wall of
manufacturers' and retailers' indifference to complaints.
So then consumer action started. People with a complaint wrote to a
person whom they could identify in some way: their MP, a journalist, a
broadcaster. As these letters continued to come in, the politicians and the
media began to realise that there was a problem area, an area where people
come up against difficulties which they cannot handle. In trying to sort out
some of the complaints, they discovered just how difficult the situation is,
how hard it is to complain, and how much specialised knowledge is required.
This consumer protection action began to achieve a popularity it had never
known before and began to attract support from the media and in Parliament.
