Proclamation 6360—National Consumers Week, 1991

For generations, our Nation's free enterprise system has provided consumers an unparalleled selection of high quality goods and services, as well as ample opportunities for earning, spending, and investing personal income. Now, as more and more countries around the world adopt market-oriented economies, thereby expanding global trade and commerce, consumers stand to benefit from an ever wider array of options.

Increasing competition in the marketplace spurs business and industry to improve both the quality and price of their products and services. This in turn enables consumers to get more out of their buying dollar. At the same time, the demand for greater innovation and productivity helps to create jobs.

The theme for this year's observance of National Consumers Week, "Today's Choices -- Tomorrow's Opportunities," underscores the importance of decisions made by individual consumers. What people buy, where, and how often helps to determine the shape of the marketplace, be it at the local or the international level. Here in the United States, we have traditionally relied on the ability of consumers and private industry to balance each other's needs and interests in the marketplace, with government intervening only to ensure fairness and the safety of goods and services. This system provides the flexibility that is essential to economic growth and technological progress.

However, while our options as consumers are virtually unlimited, our resources are not. Every American needs to recognize the importance of savings and investment, and all of us must decide carefully when spending our resources. To be responsible and discerning consumers, we must be knowledgeable about available goods and services. Every American must also be able to apply fundamental literacy skills to the day-to-day challenges of participating in our economy. The skills that one uses to compare products or to balance a checkbook are vital to success, not only in the marketplace, but also in the workplace. Our Nation's parents, educators, business leaders, and public officials share the responsibility for teaching these essential skills.

This year, as we mark the 10th anniversary of National Consumers Week, let us renew our determination to ensure that every American has the basic tools needed to exercise his or her rights as a consumer. Those rights include: the right to be free of unfair monopolies, which limit selection of products and services; the right to healthful and safe products; and the right to be heard when products do not meet acceptable standards. These rights are based on fundamental principles of freedom and fairness, and their preservation goes hand in hand with the success of our free enterprise system.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week beginning October 20, 1991, as National Consumers Week. I urge business owners, educators, public officials, consumer leaders, and members of the media to observe this week with appropriate activities that emphasize the important role consumers play in keeping our markets open, competitive, and fair. I also urge them to highlight the importance of education in helping citizens to become responsible consumers.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and sixteenth.

GEORGE BUSH