> Can you tell if the pump is dispensing the octane rating you actually selected or a slightly lesser-quality fuel?
Isn't that true for any conceivable gas station, from the most laissez-faire to the most centrally regulated? Unless you can physically perform the experiments required to test the octane rating yourself, the only thing you can do is trust. You either trust the reputation of a gas station or gas station chain which you frequently purchase from (and have had no previous issues with their gas), or the reputation of some third-party consumer review organization in a laissez-faire economy, or the reputation of the government regulatory agency in charge of gas stations.
In all three cases, the organization you are trusting has some incentives to lie/cheat, and some incentives to be honest. Deciding which system has the best incentives on net, and thus is the most trustworthy, depends on the details of how each system works, and is a nontrivial economics problem.
Isn't that true for any conceivable gas station, from the most laissez-faire to the most centrally regulated? Unless you can physically perform the experiments required to test the octane rating yourself, the only thing you can do is trust. You either trust the reputation of a gas station or gas station chain which you frequently purchase from (and have had no previous issues with their gas), or the reputation of some third-party consumer review organization in a laissez-faire economy, or the reputation of the government regulatory agency in charge of gas stations.
In all three cases, the organization you are trusting has some incentives to lie/cheat, and some incentives to be honest. Deciding which system has the best incentives on net, and thus is the most trustworthy, depends on the details of how each system works, and is a nontrivial economics problem.