The tyranny of choice

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

Steven Waldman wrote this essay with regards to the overwhelming number of choices that consumers faced each time they go make a simple purchase. The main purpose for writing this essay is to entertain and inform a simple situation we encounter every day. Waldman highlighted the stressful behaviors that people go through when making a right decision, which he illustrate using his personal experience as an example. After he portrayed his unfortunate day searching for socks in Sox Appeal, he observed his own situations with too many choices like dealing with insurance benefit plans, medical treatments and entertainment. He stated that the more choices there are, the better chance of making a wrong choice. Waldman debated on the growing forms of religious denomination and news periodicals. He also distinguished the benefits of choices like company deregulation, increased social tolerance and improvement in products. In Waldman's essay, he illustrated five negative points of choices.

In one point Waldman elaborated that "Choice Erode Commitment." This point describes how people tend to linger in making a commitment and wearing away their responsibility in their careers, social life and marriage. He supports his main idea by mentioning his own experience in marriage and examines important statistics about single females.

Waldman elaborated that "Choice Leads to Inept Consumption." This describes that the more choices available, the more information the consumer must have in making an intelligent decision. If there are too many choices, the consumer will abandon making rational decisions like safety. Salespeople help urge the consumers in not making sensible selections which can be more frustrating. He concluded that his stressful search in Sox Appeal ended with getting the socks in the wrong size.

"Choices Cause Political Alienation," is another negative point Waldman described. He observed that the way people voted for a...