The free enterprise system has produced a technology capable of providing the American consumer with the largest and most varied marketplace in the world. Technological advances, however, have come hand-in-hand with impersonal mass marketing of goods and services. Along with progress, too, have come some instances of manipulative advertising practices and a proliferation of products whose reliability, safety and quality are difficult to evaluate. Today’s consumers buy, enjoy, use and discard more types of goods than could possibly have been imagined even a few years ago. Yet too often consumers have no idea of the materials that have gone into the manufacturer’s finished product or their own motivation in selecting one product over another. 62. Easy credit and forceful techniques of modern marketing persuade many consumers to buy what they cannot afford. The consequent overburdening of family budgets is a problem for consumers at all economic levels. It is not unusual for families to allocate 20 percent or more of their income to debt repayments witho6t understanding the effect this allocation has upon other choices. Some families have such tight budgets that an illness, a period of unemployment, or some other crisis finds them without adequate reserves. 63. In addition to the growing complexity of the market, consumers are sometimes faced with unfair and deceptive practices. Although there are laws designed to protect the consumer, there is not a sufficient number of law enforcers to cover all the abuses of the marketplace. 64. There is growing concern and awareness, too, of the disadvantage of the poor and undereducated American in the marketplace of the affluent. Families in low-income inner city and rural areas often do not have the same varieties of goods and prices available to them as their middle-income counterparts. They are more likely to be targets for fraudulent sales schemes and high cost credit than their affluent neighbors. An adult in today’s society should be knowledgeable in the use of credit. He should understand what is involved in purchasing a house, and the many pitfalls to be avoided when entering into financial agreements. 65. He should know enough about advertising and selling techniques to enable him to discern the honest from the fraudulent and deceptive. He should be knowledgeable about consumer protection laws so that he can demand his rights. When he needs help, he should know the private and public sources to which he can turn for assistance.