This week we have a beautiful illustration of what has been driving our consumer prices steadily upward for the last 50 years. Debt-driven inflation accounts for only some of the increase in the prices of many consumer goods since 1960; the rest is due to the growing burden of regulation. Efficiencies from technology, innovation, and outsourcing have only partly offset the upward climb of consumer prices.

Now the Consumer Product Safety Commission, with voluntary compliance from the Window Covering Safety Council (yes, there is one), is recalling 50 million roll-up window coverings, including blinds and Roman shades. Eight children have reportedly died in the past 10 years from getting their necks wrapped up in cords related to blinds and shades.

Presumably the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) is doing this because it figures that a recall is cheaper than a flood of lawsuits, and at least some of its industry members will survive the hit, even in a bad economy. Large-scale manufacturers may be in a position to do so. But this move could be a death blow for some smaller manufacturers, as well as for the low-margin window-covering retailers who are struggling to remain in business throughout the recession. Wal-Mart will hardly notice having empty shelves, at least for a few weeks, where the roll-up window coverings used to be. But suppose department-store retailers decide to offer refunds or exchanges on “unsafe” blinds and shades. Trying to follow suit would represent a business-killing cash hemorrhage for many specialty retailers.

The WCSC helpfully advises consumers to improve their window-covering safety posture by installing “only cordless window coverings in homes with young children.” We are informed that blinds and shades manufactured after 2001 are safer than those made before 2001; but as one whose home is fitted with nothing but window coverings manufactured after 2001, I can assure you that these newer items still have cords all over them. There are, of course, cordless blinds and shades on the market, but they cost substantially more than their serviceable and attractive cord-operated counterparts.

And that is precisely my point. Perhaps public demand for cheap blinds will restore the standard cord-infested ones to the shelves after the echoes of this recall have faded. The public may not respond to the recall in great numbers anyway. But to the extent that retailers choose to make only more expensive blinds available, and to the extent that fewer manufacturers and retailers are able to remain in business through a recall that imposes unrecoverable costs, the price of window coverings will go up for all consumers while choice will go down. This seems like a small thing – until we realize that every industry we buy from is affected by the same regulatory zeal. It all adds up; it makes it harder for businesses to remain viable; and you are paying the freight.