Freedom of Choice
As the products of over two centuries of liberalism and capitalism, we tend to think that the freedom of choice constitutes an ultimate good in and of itself. It seems that above all others, this freedom is the bedrock of our society. Choosing from among many different options, we think, will inevitably lead to the best possible outcome - whether it is for a car, health insurance, jeans, or even a politician. With just the right information and all of our options laid out before us, we should be able to make the choice that will lead to our greatest satisfaction and happiness.
However, this is not always the case. Now, before I get bombarded with criticism for implicitly endorsing some sort of planned or command economy, let me say right here and now, that I am most certainly not doing so! I think that having options to choose from is great (for evidence, you can look at the number of different mustards I have in my refrigerator). But, I do fear that too often we take the freedom of choice to be an absolute good, that we have just a little bit too much faith in its ability to deliver the Good(s) (pun entirely intended...and by "Good" I really mean just that, the best/most satisfactory/happiest outcome for each and every individual based on his or her own decisions - that is, afterall, what liberalism promises to deliver above all else, right?). The problem is that too much choice can actually lead to a lot of unhappiness.
It reminds me of an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, where Calvin's dad gets kicked out of the grocery store for making a scene about how many peanut butters there are from which to choose. I've seen this situation referred to as tyranny of choice. I have also read accounts that, psychologically, too much choice does not make us happy. In fact, it leaves us with feelings of being unfulfilled or doubtful, that there is always a better option on the horizon that we just don't know about yet. I can say that I had this experience with trying to pick a health insurance program last year. There was a bewildering array of plans set before me, and I made my best attempt to read through their brochures carefully and compare all of their advantages and disadvantages. I picked one that ended up being pretty terrible, and, fortunately, I did have the option to choose a new one for this year. But, the problem here was that the ability to choose, in itself, was not "good." It gave me a huge headache, wasted hours of my time, and got me a crappy health care plan in the end.
What's even more problematic is that freedom of choice doesn't necessarily weed out bad options - like some sort of Darwinistic invisible hand of the free market. You would think that bad plans, cars, types of mustard, etc. would just "die off" because they do not get chosen. But they don't and I really don't know why that is. Again, I'm not advocating that we eliminate choice, I'm just interjecting a word of caution when it comes to having faith in systems that rely on choice as the end all be all.
That said, enjoy Devo's take on our freedom of choice. I really love this song, but the video is not of the best quality (ironic isn't it?). Also, you will not be hearing from me for about two weeks, as I will be touring the ballparks of the great American heartland with my dad. If I have internet access, I may drop a line with my evaluations of some of the stadiums. Have a good and safe 4th of July!
However, this is not always the case. Now, before I get bombarded with criticism for implicitly endorsing some sort of planned or command economy, let me say right here and now, that I am most certainly not doing so! I think that having options to choose from is great (for evidence, you can look at the number of different mustards I have in my refrigerator). But, I do fear that too often we take the freedom of choice to be an absolute good, that we have just a little bit too much faith in its ability to deliver the Good(s) (pun entirely intended...and by "Good" I really mean just that, the best/most satisfactory/happiest outcome for each and every individual based on his or her own decisions - that is, afterall, what liberalism promises to deliver above all else, right?). The problem is that too much choice can actually lead to a lot of unhappiness.
It reminds me of an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, where Calvin's dad gets kicked out of the grocery store for making a scene about how many peanut butters there are from which to choose. I've seen this situation referred to as tyranny of choice. I have also read accounts that, psychologically, too much choice does not make us happy. In fact, it leaves us with feelings of being unfulfilled or doubtful, that there is always a better option on the horizon that we just don't know about yet. I can say that I had this experience with trying to pick a health insurance program last year. There was a bewildering array of plans set before me, and I made my best attempt to read through their brochures carefully and compare all of their advantages and disadvantages. I picked one that ended up being pretty terrible, and, fortunately, I did have the option to choose a new one for this year. But, the problem here was that the ability to choose, in itself, was not "good." It gave me a huge headache, wasted hours of my time, and got me a crappy health care plan in the end.
What's even more problematic is that freedom of choice doesn't necessarily weed out bad options - like some sort of Darwinistic invisible hand of the free market. You would think that bad plans, cars, types of mustard, etc. would just "die off" because they do not get chosen. But they don't and I really don't know why that is. Again, I'm not advocating that we eliminate choice, I'm just interjecting a word of caution when it comes to having faith in systems that rely on choice as the end all be all.
That said, enjoy Devo's take on our freedom of choice. I really love this song, but the video is not of the best quality (ironic isn't it?). Also, you will not be hearing from me for about two weeks, as I will be touring the ballparks of the great American heartland with my dad. If I have internet access, I may drop a line with my evaluations of some of the stadiums. Have a good and safe 4th of July!
By Kevin - 6/25/2008
17 Comments:
I think freedom of choice is good. I like your post and understand where you are coming from...especially on the healthplan choice. But lucky for you, you had the freedom to choose to change it later.
Have fun with your Dad...that's going to be an awesome trip. I'll be interested reading about the ballparks you CHOSE to visit.
And Calvin and Hobbes was one of the best comic strips ever.
Thanks Russ...and I definitely agree with you on Calvin and Hobbes (named after Bill Watterson's two favorite philosophers - John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes, for those who might not know!).
I wonder whether or not your average American with almost unlimited choices and options is any happier than your average indian living in the rain forest in South America who has little or no choices. I don't know the answer to that but I doubt whether or not the gap is big as one would think.
Picking health care plans is extremely confusing. Your post also reminded me of hearing about Senior Citizens trying to navigate prescription drug plans where they financial security depends on which plan they choose.
Safe travels to the ball parks.
Menckin, sure it is imaginable that people in rain forrests with few choices are as happy as Americans, but it fails to explain some rather obvious occurences.
People move from one country to another all the time, often illegally, and at a great expense. And how often to immigrants flee a country with more choices to reside in a country with fewer? It is a rare occurence. But people flock to countries where liberty is cherished as founding principle.
The problem with the whole "tyranny of choice" argument is pretty obvious. It only works if the subject is particularly naive. If for instance, you were offered a single (or maybe just a few) health insurance plan, and it was labelled "the best" option, then it is fairly obvious that someone, or some group, made that choice for you. It is within your capacity to imagine a plan that would suit you better, but some mechanism would have to stand in the way of you getting it. So now instead of having tyrrany of choice, you have simply tyranny.
As humans, we are programmed to innovate and imporove. We are also all unique. If our choices were limmitted, or made for us by some authority, only the dumbest among us would actually believe that other choices didn't exist.
There are instances where we really don't have much choice. On some level that may make us comfortable, and allow us to simply accept our condition. But there is no good argument for trying to actively limmit choice to obtain a happier society. The idea is profoundly marxist. Just imagine getting 100 people in a gymnasium and getting them to agree on which choices need limmitting and how.
As Kevin already stated, he's not saying the freedom of choice is bad, I think he was saying beware that too many choices can pose problems as well. i.e. there are issues with both extremes. Limitless options doesn't necessarily equal a happier outcome, as one might think.
Small tangent: Here's my example of how limiting choices leads to a beneficial outcome. Childhood obesity doubled over the last 20 yrs to 16%, adult obesity is at 34% (source: Center for Disease Control). On that note, let's say, just for the hell of it, we got rid of the option of twinkies and donuts - completely abolished them from our grocery stores, etc. This would theoretically contribute to a (albeit slightly) healthier society. (I know this is oversimplified, but healthier diet contributes to weight loss in most cases so it's not too extreme). But oh no, people miss those tasty twinkies and donuts - unhappiness abounds. But a year later, despite the boo-hoos, said society is that much healthier, and the memory of those tasty twinkies and donuts fades. Limited choices in this case doesn't make society happy...initially...but it contributes to overall health. And kids have fewer weight-related health issues, there are fewer heart attacks...you get the point. Limitless options can be detrimental as well, if not to our happiness than perhaps to our health.
There are a billion examples of course, of how several options can result in a better or worse outcome. But it's interesting to at least acknowledge the latter.
My brother in law did a documentary about the "Indians in the rain" in South America. They were only contacted two years ago in the Chaco region on the Paraguay and Bolivia border. The name of the documentary is "From Honey to Ashes" by Lucas Bessire. Before being contacted in the jungle they had no idea any other groups of people or civilizations existed.
Yes they were happy before being "contacted". They are much happier now that they have access to all the benefits that a civilized society affords. My brother in law wrestles with this issue while he films the Indians. He believes that we should leave them alone in the jungle and not disrupt the way they were living before. However, the Indians would never want to go back to living the way they did before. If dirt could kill a man there would not be any Indians. They lived a filthy existence without basic hygiene or medical care. They had to kill their food everyday or they went hungry. I suppose that it is all relative, but they are much happier now than they were before. Three of the Indians who were contacted less than a year ago visited my home in MD. The USA blew their minds. I could make a documentary on the two days that we spent together. I am veering off subject.
Just because you believe something to be a bad choice does not mean that everyone believes it to be a poor choice. The free market will weed out bad products or services if they do not meet the needs of a large number of consumers.
Sance try again, but this time with an example that doesn't use the exhausted "let's do it for the children" argument.
The problem with this thinking is that you, Kevin, or a whole bloody group of like-minded people can use this logic to essentially make other people's choices for them. In the above example, you are making parental choices for kids that are not yours.
What I'm saying is that limitless options is precisely what makes for a better, and happier society. We have the liberty to make better choices for ourselves, and provide better choices for each other. I'm arguing that those researching the "tyranny of choice" are setting up experiments that are illogical because they force people to accept a reality (fewer choices) that is inconsistent with our own. These studies fail to address the fact that it is our nature to eventually create, or at least envision, more choices. This is especially true when we are unsatisfied with the ones we have.
You can create hypotheticals all day long, and what you'll find is that the deprivation of choice is more harmful than the ill effects of too much choice. And you can't just seperate the two, one is essential for the other.
Generally the preferred option comes at a higher price.
Yes Mencken, and that is why capitalism is, and always will be the mechanism for describing the value of goods and services.
This thread is boring the shit out of me.
Missed my point...childhood obesity? That was hardly in the example at all, except to contextualize. It wasn't about making "parental choices" it was about the POSSIBLE benefit of limited options. The focus should have been on the positive end result (weight loss), not the specifics of how said twinkies and donuts came to no longer exist.
I just disagree with the absolute statement that limitless options ALWAYS 100% of the time result in a better society. Of course we all know it's possible, even LIKELY that more options = better. I never once said options aren't good.
Didn't Kevin already insert a huge disclaimer about this??
Anyway, Ozone interesting post... It reminds me (loosely, of course, and going in the opposite direction) of rumspringa, the amish tradition of letting teens experience the world, from music to drugs, from days to years. The options go from limited to limitless, essentially. But surprisingly, the majority return to the amish lifestyle (I think the # was 90%) despite the limitations inherent in it. There's a NY Times article by Beth Prinsker (2002) called "Television/radio; The dangers of a date with the outside world" that touches on this.
Kevin and Russ,
You should check out the stripe "Frazz," by Jeff Mallet. Many Waterson experts believe it to be him writing under a pseudonym, and if it isn't their sense of humor/depth/characters/style/etc... are very similiar.
Thanks, bj!
I think limitless choices is just a mechanism of natural selection.
boring the shit outa Mencken - thats enough for me-- I am going for my Maalox
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