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Vulnerability in the Marketplace: Concepts, Caveats, and Possible SolutionsAtkinson Graduate School of Management, at Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97301, dringold{at}willamette.edu Vulnerable consumers fail to understand their preferences and/or lack the knowledge, skills, or freedom to act on them. To protect them, some want to censor information, restrict choices, and mandate behaviors. One-fifth of the American public is functionally illiterate, K-12 performance is declining, and yet a substantial majority of American consumers (adolescents included) appear to be marketplace literate. Rather than curtail consumer prerogatives to protect a vulnerable minority, education reform focused on the values, knowledge, and skills necessary to create and navigate responsive markets is proposed. Reformed adult and K-12 education can refine, expand, and accelerate learners’ informal and experiential understanding of marketplace fundamentals. The aim is to significantly replace trial and error with a robust understanding of markets, markets habitually governed by social virtues. Evidence suggests that these aims can be better achieved via K-12 choice and should be the focus of adult basic education reform.
Key Words: consumer vulnerability • education reform • school choice • adult basic education • public policy and marketing
Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 25, No. 2,
202-214 (2005) This article has been cited by other articles:
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