E FFICIENT operation of a free enterprise system requires that consumers look after their own welfare. Persistent failure of consumers to safeguard their own interests can seriously weaken even the richly endowed economy of the United States. Moreover, consumer ignorance could well be a major cause of the economic privations of the poorest third of the nation. It is universally acknowledged that consumers lack knowledge to some degree. However, no systematic effort has been made to probe the size of this deficiency. No one knows whether most consumers intelligently pursue their self-interest most of the time or whether most of them fail to do so most of the time.

Alfred R. Oxenfeldt, Ernest van den Haag; Unemployment in Planned and Capitalist Economies: Reply, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 69, Issue 3,

I. The problem, 43. — II. Capitalist countries tend to favor the deflationary risk; planned economies lean towards inflation, 44. — III. Deflationary unemployment and its cures, 46; depression in capitalist economies, 46; monetary depression in planned economies, 47; real depression in planned economies, 49. — IV. Inflation and employment in capitalist and planned economies, 51; inflation in capitalist economies, 51; monetary inflation in planned economies, 52; real inflation in planned economies, 53. — V. Conclusions, 59.