In contrast to the progress in political franchise, the economic franchise for consumers has constantly been eroded. This disenfranchisement makes us all bitches to politicians and bureaucrats.

We are all consumers, irrespective of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. As such, we are all dignified free people if consumer sovereignty is alive and well. Every time we buy something for consumption, we cast our vote to express our needs, wants, and value judgment, thereby deciding who among producers succeeds or fails. As a result, producers, who are also consumers, strive to meet or exceed consumers’ expectations at the lowest cost. Those who succeed become the most comfortable consumers themselves; those who fail are motivated to try again in search of their place in the social system of division of labor. At the end of the day, consumer sovereignty is the key to the win-win situation for everybody.

However, a tax here and a tax there have turned us from dignified, free consumers into government’s bitches. We consumers not only have to pay sales taxes at the point of sale, but we also pay all the taxes imposed on the producers and all their suppliers, because they inevitably transfer their tax burden to consumers just like any other cost of production. Furthermore, not only are we consumers the most dumped-on members of society, but our votes in the form of purchase decision, naturally influenced by purchasing costs incurred, also are disconnected from our needs and wants by the often-uneven taxes among producers and among industries. Moreover, also imbedded in the product prices are the costs of the laws and regulations ostensibly designed to make employers treat their employees better. Consequently, the win-win situation made possible by consumer sovereignty is turned upside down by government’s tentacles–politicians and bureaucrats come on top and consumers foot the bill for everyone.

There is no doubt that we consumers need help with product safety. The irony is, however, the FDA and other consumer safety agencies in the government only make consumers more vulnerable. As we know, competition makes it necessary for people to be effective and efficient on their jobs, and government authorities with their monopoly do not have to worry about competition. Consequently, behind the façade of authoritative figures and regulations are consumers’ false sense of security and heightened costs of production, which, again, are always passed down to consumers through higher price tags. Contrary to what politicians and bureaucrats want us to believe, consumer sovereignty in fact provides us with the best possible protection. With the government out of the way, multiple private product evaluation institutions will spring up and vie for creditability, which is the only currency in this business. Thus, in an environment conducive to consumer sovereignty, we are in control regarding whose advice to take, and what products to buy, with general protection from criminal and civil penalties. Of course, from the politicians’ and bureaucrats’ perspective, we cannot have that; consumers are better off living under them as their bitches.

Obsessed with the preposterous notion that consumption, or even overconsumption, is key to the health of the economy, the government wants to induce consumers to buy more stuff, even when we have been exploited down to the last few dollars in our pockets. Therefore, the government artificially lowers interest rates, so that consumers can buy everything from clothes, to electronics, to houses on credit. As a result, we consumers are caught between our piled up debts and shrinking assets, hit by the panic of 2008, and dragged through the ensuing worst recession since the Great Depression.

On top of everything else, politicians and bureaucrats, nicely and with a straight face, often tell us the consumer price index that they calculate for us shows no inflation while we are feeling the pinch of rising prices everywhere. After all, they are the arbiters of intelligence and we are only their bitches.