Imagine a society that lets its automakers oversee crash tests on new models, allowing the industry to report results, as it sees fit, to government and consumers. Sometimes, an automaker might not reveal the outcome of a test that turned out badly, deciding that the dummies in the vehicle were too short--no wonder their chests were crushed!

In other cases, a company might postpone reporting on crash test results for a year or two, hoping that later trials would turn out better. In these cases dozens of trials might be required in order to achieve the desired outcome. The car maker would, of course, pass along the additional cost, in the form of higher sticker prices. In this society, crash tests are not run and paid for by an independent entity like our National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (funded by taxpayers) or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (funded by auto insurers). Instead, the auto industry itself finances and controls the trials. Automakers also provide most of the funding for the government agency that rules on car safety. Finally, under this system, head-to-head comparisons of cars in a similar weight class are frowned upon. Such trials would create winners and losers--and who wants to be a loser? Instead, each company tests its own cars, and when outcomes finally are published, they tend to be excellent.

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