Yet more corporate erosion of the trust that makes society work.
This is why restricting trade isn't as crazy as it sounds: when the aloe vera cream is made down the street, you can go beat the guy up if he defrauds you. And he knows that.
Exactly. Regulation does not come out of thin air--but in response to abuses. Complaining about regulation in the abstract is akin to bank robbers complaining about the laws against bank robbery.
No, this is an example of why government regulation and free market economic are important. In places where there's fierce competition, a scandal like this will cost the player to lost the battle against other competitors, so deregulate those markets to boost competition. In places where competition is not possible by reasons other than regulations, government should regulate the shit of the industry. However, US is heading to a place where most markets are gonna be dominated by monopolies yet the regulations not be there.
But isn't this the ultimate commodity? I understand that reasoning in heavily regulated industries like drugs, where high costs of development encourage monopolies. But the cosmetic industry is poorly regulated already.
It isn't like everyone in any one country or restricted area is honest nor does everyone have the means to verify the contents of every item they purchase.
Not really. It's not like they bought it thinking it was Aloe Vera, they either didn't verify and then claimed it was, or gave specific orders detailing its production and ingredients, wherever it was made. Good luck "beating up" the CEO or product development manager at CVS or Walgreens regardless of where they placed their factory, anyway.
I guess all the class action law suits are the free market way or regulating this? Not sure how efficient that is but at least there's some kind of pain for lying on ingredient lists.
Legal scholars have many solutions for this kind of stuff. Libertarians have actually spend a lot of time and effort studying this stuff, because its so relevant for free market systems.
Consider this easy idea, you can sell your claims. In a case (non harmful wrong labeling) such as this, you sell your claim for 10$ and then you don't have to care anymore.
Some bigger buyer of this stuff can buy the claims and fight the lawsuit. This is simple and effective.
Also, this is not a new idea, its very old idea that has been done in many places. It performs quite well historically.
The folks you really have to pity are those in Africa and South America and other areas of planet Earth that receive those products where their citizens can't sue these companies.
They might not even be aware of a product-recall, if any.
I don't understand your point. How does 'most countries' have any relevancy for what 'the free market way' of doing something is? Most countries are not and don't claim to be 'free market' countries.
Those that advocate free markets usually also advocate changes in the legal system.
This is why restricting trade isn't as crazy as it sounds: when the aloe vera cream is made down the street, you can go beat the guy up if he defrauds you. And he knows that.