Options Are Overrated

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Americans believe that the world works best when consumers have unlimited choice. This is why my corner drugstore offers, by my last count, 103 different kinds of body moisturizers. These are not, of course, to be confused with moisturizers for the face, hand, elbow or foot.

We, the informed shoppers, are supposed to scan the crowded shelves and decide whether our needs will best be met by body oil, body butter or firming emulsion. We will, perhaps, mull the “udder cream” whose big selling point is that it was originally developed for use on dairy cows. Then we select the products that will survive and thrive by voting with our pocketbooks.

This is way too much responsibility.

I have been thinking a lot about choices lately, because I have gotten interested in college loans. The Obama administration is trying to reform the current loopy system in which the government pays private companies to do the lending. The loans are then guaranteed by the government so the private companies are sheltered from loss. Then the government buys the loans back so the private companies can go out and do it all over again.

(More here.)