Michael Lissack to the costs of the products we buy, the market might not look so efficient after all. And if instead of relying on the government to keep abuses petty, we rely on our own self-education and vigilant consumption, we again introduce a very substantial, though largely hidden, cost. It takes time-lots of time-to be a knowledgeable, vigilant consumer. When we don't have that time we end up feeling vulnerable and unprotected in everyday commercial transactions. When we are looking for big-ticket items, we comparison shop, get the advice of friends, consult consumer magazines, and the like. But none of us has either the time or the stomach for this kind of vigilance in all trans- actions. So we let many things slide, knowing or suspecting that we will be cheated out of nickels and dimes with some regularity. The alternative vigilance in all domains-would essentially require us to give up eating in restaurants, buying processed foods, and doing many other things that we find pleasurable or convenient. Life has become all so complex and varied that no one can be a watch- dog in all things. and few people can be watchdogs in any. Caveat emptor might work when buyers and sellers have roughly equal information about the quality and price of goods and services offered in the market. And there may have been a time before our technological era when buyers and sellers did have approximately equal information. But that then is long gone. Just as we don't expect to have to be fully knowledgeable consumers of medical services in order to be treated properly by our doctors, we can't expect to be fully knowledgeable consumers of anything else. Whether we like it or not, we are at the mercy of the experts, those who try to sell us things, and those who purport to represent our interests in governing us. But what happens when people don't have all the information they need? Then market competitor doesn't work. It does us no good that one product is better than another, or one brand is cheaper than another, unless we know it. And now, more than ever before, knowing it is impossible. Too much va- riety. Too much complexity. So now, more than ever before, the economists' assumption that people have complete information is suspect. Values and standards that were internal to certain social practices and institutions and
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