O direito à escolha

Artigo de Virginia Postrel na Forbes.

In the early 20th century critics attacked product variety as being wasteful--a sign that markets were less efficient than central planning. Hence, the Chinese wore Mao suits, Americans got uniformly round automobile headlights and British authorities "rationalized" furniture designs.

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A free economy multiplies variety, the better to serve buyers with different tastes and different needs and to give people the chance to experience different goods at different times. Arguing that this plenitude is inefficient went out decades ago. The problem with markets, the detractors now say, is that all these choices make us unhappy.

"As the number of choices grows further, the negatives escalate until we become overloaded," writes psychologist Barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice, published last year. "At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates. It might even be said to tyrannize." Schwartz misses the good old days when he didn't expect his jeans to fit perfectly and it took only five minutes to buy a new pair.

The book is a lucid overview of the psychological literature, and within its pages Schwartz, a professor at Swarthmore, sticks to personal advice. He urges readers not to fixate on finding the very best alternative but rather to set standards and accept the first choice that meets those criteria. The book makes no public policy recommendations. Since its publication, however, Schwartz has used his authority to opine against private Social Security accounts and for returning to steeply progressive income taxes, with a top rate of 90%. Neither policy is supported by the research he cites--or even by the idea that we'd be happier with fewer choices.


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The fundamental problem with Schwartz's critique, however, isn't the author's leftist preferences. It's the difference between understanding the human mind and understanding market institutions. Psychology experiments often screen out the adjustments real people use to cope with choices, from brand loyalty to expert guidance. Markets, by contrast, produce not only more choice but also more ways to choose effectively.

If having too many choices is overwhelming, that suggests a new round of entrepreneurial opportunities. Offer customers abundant choices, but also help them search. Amazon does that with its many recommendation services. So does TiVo. So do Home Depot's Expo Design Centers, which offer interior design services along with hundreds of faucets and floor coverings.

"Mediated shopping"--experts and tools that narrow down the possibilities to a manageable number of likely candidates--looks like the wave of the future. It wouldn't be the first time businesses used social criticism as market research. Where do you think Starbucks got its strategy?