The most obvious benefit of economic freedom is that, as a system, it is the most conducive to widespread prosperity, that is, to high or rising income and consumption for the bulk of the population.
In practice it is impossible to distinguish between advertising that is intended to be persuasive and advertising that is intended to be informative. Persuasive advertising normally has information content and even basic information provided by a company about its products will normally be intended to make consumers more interested in the product.
Alcohol policy in Britain and many other countries aims to reduce per capita alcohol consumption in the belief that this will inevitably reduce heavy and harmful drinking. The cornerstone policies of this approach are advertising bans, licensing restrictions and higher taxes.
The small loans market (quick credit, pay-day loans) often gets a lot of criticism in the media. Its critics state that the market has too little supervision; that the industry does not properly assess the ability of customers to repay their loan; and that interest rates are artificially high.
The EU has a clear framework to steer its energy and climate policies up to 2020.The 2030 framework should build on the experience and lessons from the current framework.
Every year, between 180 and 260 people in Sweden die as a result of antibiotic resistance. Responsibility for increasing antibiotic resistance is often placed on doctors and consumers. It is argued that customer-oriented physicians and self-serving patients are driving the problem through increased prescribing.