Page 174 - Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

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Consumer Protest

many of those deaths and injuries could have been
avoided had automobile producers included certain safety
features as part of the standard package. Consumers began
to demand automobile safety features such as air bags, seat
belts, and turn signals.
The National Highway and Traffic Safety Adminis-
tration (NHTSA) was established to ensure highway and
automobile safety. It was responsible for setting minimal
safety standards for automobiles, as well as ensuring con-
sumer notification of automobile safety defects. NHTSA
developed and issued thirty standards in 1967 aimed at
reducing crash potential and resulting damage.

TAXES AND CONSUMER ISSUES
Based on the initial successes of his Public Interest
Research Group, Nader formed the Public Citizen Tax
Reform Research Group in 1972. The tax group’s People
and Taxes was the first publication to explain the manipu-
lation of the tax system to subsidize big corporations,
thereby burdening the average taxpayer. In 1976, after
many successful tax-reform actions, Robert Brandon and
his colleagues Tom Stanton and Jonathan Rowe published
a succinct, understandable tax analysis, Tax Politics: How
They Make You Pay and What You Can Do about It.
Nader and his Raiders have played major roles in
addressing and resolving consumer issues on the rights of
consumers, workers, and airline passengers; telecommuni-
cations; education; banking; automobile safety; environ-
mental protection; and legal issues. Their campaigns,
Ralph Nader (1934– ). Social activist and consumer protestor
publications, and books have also resulted in the emer-
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 4, 2004. © RICK
gence of public opinion supporting environmental protec-
FRIEDMAN/CORBIS
tion. Additionally, John C. Esposito’s 1970 book, The
Vanishing Air, declared that the Clean Air Act of 1967 had
failed to initiate effective air pollution controls. At about
and consumer groups, the Consumer Federation of Amer- the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency
ica (established in 1967).
increased its focus on environmental issues, and the Clean
Individuals such as Ralph Nader (1934– ) and his Water Act (1972) was passed, both resulting from public
advocacy groups have crusaded to ensure consideration reaction to the publication of David Zwick and Marcy
and enforcement of consumer rights since the mid-twen- Benstock’s Water Wasteland, which critiqued the failures of
tieth century. Often these activities have resulted not only pollution-control laws. Further, in response to 1970 statis-
in important consumer victories, but have also brought tical findings that worker deaths and disabilities totaled
about positive changes in the political climate and in the over 14,000 annually, Nader sponsored Joseph Page’s
institution of self-regulation. report Bitter Wages, which helped turn the public and
political tide toward enacting the Occupational Safety and
AUTOMOBILE SAFETY Health Act (OSHA) of 1970.
From the time of the appearance of the automobile on the While OSHA has often been perceived by consumer
American landscape until 1966, when a federal auto safety activists as being slow to act or react, it has established
law was enacted, manufacturers had determined the level standards that ensure business compliance with workplace
of safety for their automobiles. From the first death in safety mandates. Additionally, OSHA standards aid in
1899 until 1966, about 2 million automobile-related reducing and minimizing cancer risks resulting from the
deaths and about 100 million injuries—a figure three use of ordinary carcinogens, including industrial chemi-
times greater than U.S. combat losses in all military cals, such as benzene; pesticides, such as DBCP; ethylene
actions—occurred. Consumer advocates postulated that oxide, a carcinogenic gas that is used for medical equip-

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