adrian ch-4

Q: If the consumer can purchase a better product, for a less expense, both of monetary and environmental value, then why do the producers restrict the consumers to an overflowing market of antiquated, overpriced products?

A: " It is, for example, at least conceivable that the British automobile industry might be able to supply a car cheaper and better than cars to be in the United States if everyone in England were made to use the same kind of car or that the use of electricity for all purposes could be made cheaper than coal or gas if everybody could be made to use only electricity. In instances like these it is at least possible that we might all be better off and should prefer the new situation if we had the choice-but that no individual ever gets the choice, because the alternative is either that we should all use the same cheap car ( or all should use only electricity) or that we should have the choice between these things with each of them at a much higher price. I do not know whether this is true in either of the instances given. But it must be admitted that it is possible that, by compulsory standardization or the Prohibition of variety beyond a certain degree, abundance might be increased in some fields more than sufficiently to compensate for the restriction of the choice of the consumer. It is even conceivable that a new invention may be made some day whose adoption would seem unquestionably beneficial but which could be used only if many or all people were mad to avail themselves or it at the same time."(hayek,57-58).