An Econoclectic Perspective
If economists had the same standards as lawyers, then these "choices create negative utility" types like Robert Frank would be disbarred.
I'm as intrigued by behavioral economics and behavioral finance as the next guy, but just as lawyers warn that "hard cases make bad law" so too should economists remember that extreme, unorthodox examples -- of either markets or people -- are by definition not representative of anything.
Of course lots of choice is good; it has its downsides as well.
Pooh, who always has his suits and shirts made for him, finds it rather troubling when he is confronted with a thousand or so different types of cloth and an infinite number of possible styles. Invariably, he just tells the tailor what his very general requirements are and leaves the rest up to him.
He's always had the same problem with women as well, which is probably why he's never been hitched.
Pining for the lost glory of communist Albania, who'd a thunk it.
I understand that one of the FIRST things that immigrants to the US say upon visiting a plain, old grocery store is, "There is SO MUCH to choose from!" Of course, unlike Stacy Schiff, they say it out of awe at the wealth that produced such choice. A pampered mind is an atrophied mind, no?
60 years ago, we might have heard someone of a puritanical religious persuasion preaching about the sins caused by materialism. Now, from a (preusmably) secular point of view, we get almost the same thing. The constant, I hypothesize, is that affluence makes people nervous. Wonder if anyone has measured this?
Commenting by HaloScan
