I think there’s also a sort of commons problem with disclosure relating to time/attention: for any given 5000-word EULA or warranty or credit card disclosure supplement, it’s plausible that someone could have read and understood it. But it’s impossible for anyone to function in the modern world and thoroughly review all the information that’s “disclosed” to them.
In a perfect theoretical world, this wouldn’t be necessary: you would just need a few people to read each standard piece of paperwork and raise hell about particularly unfair or non-market terms, and the rest of us could rely on those signals. For some products, this seems to work well and disclosure is effective at leading to fully-informed transactions. But for many products it doesn’t, and credit cards are a great example. Is there a way to better distinguish the products/services where disclosure is effective from the ones where it isn’t?
I think there’s also a sort of commons problem with disclosure relating to time/attention: for any given 5000-word EULA or warranty or credit card disclosure supplement, it’s plausible that someone could have read and understood it. But it’s impossible for anyone to function in the modern world and thoroughly review all the information that’s “disclosed” to them.
In a perfect theoretical world, this wouldn’t be necessary: you would just need a few people to read each standard piece of paperwork and raise hell about particularly unfair or non-market terms, and the rest of us could rely on those signals. For some products, this seems to work well and disclosure is effective at leading to fully-informed transactions. But for many products it doesn’t, and credit cards are a great example. Is there a way to better distinguish the products/services where disclosure is effective from the ones where it isn’t?