Consumers are overcharged, ignored and powerless - it's time to fight back, argues Paul Cullen, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
'The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise," reads the inscription on Big Jim Larkin's statue on O'Connell Street, right in the heart of Dublin's shopping district. Originally framed as a call to action for oppressed workers, today it could just as easily be applied to consumers in Celtic-Tiger Ireland.
For consumers are the new powerless in our affluent society. Although wealthier than ever, their resources drain away thanks to high prices, a lack of real choice and illusory competition. Most of us are running faster than ever just to stand still and we don't understand why. Too often, instead of good service, we get lip service or, worse, disservice; instead of clarity we get obfuscation.
The black arts of advertising and public relations perpetuate the myth that the customer is king while the reality is that the customer is merely tolerated; just ask anyone who has been left waiting when calling customer complaints or has tried to find a contact number on a company's website.
How else to explain why Ireland is the most expensive country in the euro zone (with Finland); why we rank as the dearest for food, non-alcoholic drinks, tobacco and rents, and second dearest for alcohol, restaurants and pubs; why electricity, gas and waste charges are soaring; why bank and phone company profits are so high; or why food packets tell us so little about potentially harmful ingredients within.
Then there is our lousy infrastructure, our baleful health service and our creaking education system, all symptoms of the State's inability to deliver efficiency and value for money to its citizens.
Like Peter Finch in the movie Network, we're mad as hell about "rip-off Ireland" and we say we're not going to stand for it; seven out of 10 people think the price they pay for goods and services is not fair.
Yet the waves of consumer anger rarely travel further than the phones of Liveline and the letters columns of newspapers. As the Consumer Strategy Report found in 2005, consumers feel they are being overcharged but react with passive acceptance because they believe there is nothing they can do about it.
Traditionally, the consumer voice in Ireland has been weak and fragmented, particularly when pitted against the awesome power of multinational manufacturers. State involvement has largely focused on advice-giving and a narrow interpretation of consumer rights; we can quibble about mistakes on our bill or return a faulty item, but we can't ask why the damn goods or services cost so much in the first place. Consumers have been left outside the cosy consensus of social partnership. Producer interests dominate the agenda of Government departments such as Agriculture and Food, and Enterprise and Employment, and the legal system is stacked against individuals taking action against big companies.
THINGS ARE CHANGING, though. For a start, there's much more at stake these days than there used to be. Last year, consumption in the Irish economy topped €75 billion, a far cry from the €9 billion spent in the dark days of 1980, the year Charles Haughey made his infamous appeal to people to tighten their belts. These days, the Irish are world leaders in conspicuous consumption, from mobile phone minutes, to luxury car marques to posh handbags to alcohol.
Increasingly, we are what we consume - and, equally, what we don't or can't consume. In line with international trends, our happiness and identity are bound up with our material possessions and consumption patterns. Consumerism is oft deplored, but its rise has been inexorable. New technology, most obviously the internet, has opened up new ways of spending - and new ways of being ripped off.
The massive increase in Irish consumer spending and numerous financial scandals have finally provoked a response from the Government.
The Competition Authority has been beefed up, and it has Ireland's notoriously closed professions firmly in its sights. The bad news here is that Government has been slow to break up these cosy cartels.
Arising from the Consumer Strategy Report, a new National Consumer Agency has been established as an advocate for consumers. Part of its agenda, such as the abolition of the Groceries Order, has been implemented, but there's still a long way to go. Eighteen months after it was set up on an interim basis, the legislation giving the agency enforcement powers has yet to be enacted.
Issues of consumer rights, protection and choice are especially important when so little separates the main political parties, as is the case in modern Ireland. With so many parties clustering around the centre, ideology goes out the window and performance and value for money matter much more. The winner of this year's election will be the party that can convince voters that it will do the best job of managing the economy, running efficient services, cutting waste and curbing the rise in stealth taxes.
BUT CONSUMER CHOICE is about much more than what we buy and how much it costs. Rather, it concerns citizens and how they interact with their society, with the consumption of personal goods forming just one element of this matrix. Active, informed consumers have the power to reform society, widen choice and penalise cheats and wrongdoers; lazy government, antipathy in the business community and inept public administration often fetter consumer power.
The original consumer advocate, US lawyer Ralph Nader, realised this. From the 1960s, he successfully translated his calls for citizen activism into effective consumer campaigns for causes such as greater car safety, water quality and rights to freedom of information.
This is one reason why the US, while rightly considered the spiritual home of capitalism, also has better regulatory authorities, greater freedom of information legislation and stronger consumer protection than anything found on this side of the Atlantic.
Its legal system, by allowing for class actions, is also more muscular in fighting for the rights of consumers.
Traditionally, the left has been suspicious of consumerism, but it shouldn't be. Disadvantaged people are most in need of consumer protection; they are, for example, most at risk from junk-food diets or the depredations of moneylenders.
Consumerism, too, brings with it obligations. Irish people and those in the highest-income countries account for almost 90 per cent of consumption, but only 20 per cent of population.
These inequalities have worsened since 1998, when a UN report pointed to five paradoxes of consumerism: consumption does not guarantee happiness; many poor people live in the most affluent of societies; economic growth does not measure the quality of development; northern consumption is often at the expense of the south; and consumption is costing us the Earth.
Just how much exploitation and human misery is involved in providing us with the consumer goods we covet is an issue few care to dwell on. However, initiatives such as Fairtrade, ethical investment and the slow food movement are gaining in popularity as a minority of consumers seek to attach moral conditions to the products they use.
Undoubtedly, however, the early 21st century is the most exciting time to be a consumer. Modern manufacturing is pumping out goods in a volume and variety never seen before. Technological advances have pushed down the prices of white goods, making them available to more people than ever.
International travel is more affordable than ever. Now the internet is creating an infinite market, where consumers can get virtually anything they want, at any time. International competition and transparent pricing is pushing down prices. Disintermediation - cutting out the middleman - promises even more benefits for consumers. Irish internet users are among the first to benefit, having found cheaper suppliers for many items than were available at home.
Perhaps, in recognition of the challenges that lie ahead, we should move Jim Larkin's statue temporarily to the Westlink toll-booths on the M50, that defining symbol of the abnegation of the rights of consumers in modern Ireland. Then we might realise that the way to rid ourselves of the inefficiencies and the scams that beset the consumer is simply to get up off our knees.
Paul Cullen can be contacted at pcullen@irish-times.ie