of America

A Proclamation

America's economy has been revitalized by the highest level of consumer confidence in nearly twenty years. Our free enterprise system and the high productivity of American workers have made such economic growth possible, providing the American consumer with an unprecedented choice of goods and services.

As the range of consumer choice increases, competition compels our businesses to provide even greater value for consumer dollars. Increasingly, business leaders respond to consumer expectations by improving the quality, safety, and effectiveness of their products. Competition also generates reliable servicing.

This year's slogan for National Consumers Week, ``Consumers Should Know,'' highlights the right of consumers to information about the products offered them. Knowledgeable, selective consumers make their dollars count. In that way, families not only enjoy better products but are able to put more money aside for future needs. Those savings translate into business investments, and that means growth for our Nation's economy.

Buyers and sellers alike should recognize the basic rights of consumers: the right to choice among products and services; the right to information enabling them to make sound purchases; the right to healthful and safe products; the right to be heard when products do not meet standards. Government at all levels will continue its responsible stewardship of consumer safety as well as its vigorous prosecution of illegal and deceptive practices. But in the final analysis it is the knowledgeable consumer and the responsible business person whose decisions will determine the success or failure of products and services in the competitive marketplace.

In celebration of National Consumers Week, I encourage schools, community organizations, labor unions, businesses, the media, and consumers themselves to help further public awareness of consumer issues and services. I urge American consumers to take advantage of this opportunity to seek and use the wealth of information available to all.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning April 21, 1985, as National Consumers Week.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and ninth.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:10 a.m., March 5, 1985]