![handle is hein.cow/anamacp0173 and id is 1 raw text is: Introduction
T HE statement of Adam Smith
.which appears in the first of the
following articles expresses succinctly
the reason for the existence of this vol-
ume. Consumption, he said, is the
sole end and purpose of all production;
. . . the interest of the producer ought
to be attended to only so far as it may
be necessary for promoting that of the
consumer. . . . But under the mer-
cantile system the interest of the con-
sumer is almost constantly sacrificed
to that of the producer; and it seems to
consider production, and not consump-
tion, as the ultimate end and object of
all industry and commerce. This
stricture on mercantilism retains its
validity within the Second Industrial
Revolution and the present NRA
period.
Only in recent years have there been
any extensive studies of the ultimate
consumer as such. A university li-
brary may contain 600,000 books, with
ten directly classified under con-
sumer. Of these ten, seven or eight
will have been written by advertising
men or marketing agents interested in
the consumer only as a potential cus-
tomer. The consumer himself, seen
narrowly as a person attempting to
exchange a limited income for a max-
imum of the end goods and services of
the industrial world, is seldom consid-
ered. In this volume on the other
hand he has been investigated largely
from that point of view. Space has
not been available to balance to any
extent this predominant consumer
outlook with contrasting ones; rather
there is here offered a symposium
which may enable the consumer-in
the most general sense every one-to
compare his interests as consumer
ix
with his interests as producer and as a
member of society.
It seems desirable to mention here
certain relevant topics which have
been omitted but which a well-
rounded symposium should include.
They cannot be treated in detail, and
are noted simply to add to the compre-
hensiveness of the review.
PERSONAL SERVICES
An appreciable portion of the con-
sumer's dollar goes to physicians, law-
yers, barbers, plumbers, automobile
mechanics, pharmacists, tailors, and
others supplying personal services.
Medical service is the only one of
these that has been studied intensively.
To judge any plan for protection of
consumers, the Committee on the
Costs of Medical Care 1 set up six
criteria, one of which is: The basic
plan should include provisions for as-
sisting and guiding patients in the se-
lection of competent practitioners and
suitable facilities for medical care.
At present, the consumer's choice of a
physician may be based on hearsay,
tradition, or accident, with little or no
means available for determining his
qualifications. The Committee fur-
ther was forced to recommend, as the
only ultimate solution for the great
majority of consumers, group practice
of medicine and group payment of
medical services. The Committee
also expressed the opinion that much
of the $125,000,000 [spent annually for
the services of naturopaths, faith heal-
ers, and similar groups] and virtually
' Quotations in this paragraph are from an
article by William T. Foster, a member of the
Committee, in the Atlantic Monthly, Jan. 1933.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.cow/anamacp0173&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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