Consumer Protection
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Effective consumer protection starts at school! Our children should receive important information about life during the final years of the basic cycle and after that, which will help them avoid pitfalls. We don't learn for school, but for life!
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This includes:
- some basic legal terms: what is a contract, are we bound by it, when am I liable for what I do, how can I insure myself, basic legal terms labour, social security, family law, how our courts work, what rights I have as a victim of crime, and so on. They are not required to acquire a “master’s degree in law”, but the basic terms which will be most important to their lives.
- the same goes for the fundamental terms of accounting, politics, taxation and everything that can be called “civic education”.
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- in terms of nutrition: basic terms of a truly healthy diet! No nutri-score but rather product knowledge!
- far too many people don't know how to cook and they eat unhealthy (and expensive) food! You can easily cook well cheaply, without spending a lot of time... if you have learned it! Nothing is simpler than a good stock or a good broth. It should be a priority task of our schools, in addition to literacy and arithmetic, to also impart this basic knowledge!
COOKING AND EATING ARE IMPORTANT
Knowing about FOOD is more important than vacations, luxury and fashion....
- this also includes basic knowledge of housekeeping, hygiene, raising pets and useful animals like chickens: teach children to live simply, healthily and well, especially in difficult times !
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Good general training saves us from having to write crazy things on products like “don't dry your cat in the microwave”!
On the other hand, accurate and honest labelling of all products, especially food, is extremely important! In Germany, 90,000 tonnes of honey are consumed each year and only 6,000 tonnes are produced. Here, consumer information must be clear: which country does my honey come from! It isn’t enough to say “EU” or “non-EU”!
We know that, for example, huge quantities of denatured honey come from China. If it says “made in China”, you have to be very careful as a consumer.
After all, we have to make sure labels don't drive us crazy! Clear categorization: in the case of meat, for example, this must be clear and concise, for example:
A: Farming appropriate to the species in all areas,
B: Farmed on the ground or in the open air, but not according to perfect criteria.
C: Maintenance in acceptable stables
D: Absence of criteria for breeding according to the needs of the species.
COLLECTIVE COMPLAINTS
Disputes involving small amounts should be resolved by arbitration or by extremely simple and inexpensive legal procedures.
Class action lawsuits against large companies that injure consumers must be possible.
But CONSUMER PROTECTION is much more than that: state or para-state companies must guarantee a “universal service”!
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This implies that post offices across the country must remain, including the CCP service. It is not possible that the weakest in our society are forced to take impossible paths to deposit or withdraw a registered letter, withdraw money from their account, etc.
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The same goes for the Bank and Savings Bank! It is not possible for the state bank to close branches.
All our public enterprises must have a clear and precise mission to make all decisions not only according to profitability criteria, but also according to social and consumer-friendly criteria.
