Paul Krugman recently wrote this article: Too Much Choice Is Hurting America
If ever Krugman has proved himself a Statist, and that he is NOT an economist no matter his education or degrees, it is this.
He asserts a free market provides "too much" choice and of course cites cases where various people have got into trouble due to poor choices (whether from carelessness, ignorance, or simple misfortune). The implication of course is that our choices should be limited in order to "help" us make fewer bad ones. That in turn inescapably implies that someone must be in a position to decide what choices we are to have.
White or brown eggs? Small, medium or large? Free-range? Organic? Omega-3? Grain-fed hens? How is a non-expert egg consumer like me to decide? Horrors, what if I buy the wrong variety for me and my family? No worries, Krugman to the rescue. He apparently has the expertise to decide for me, or he knows a really good bureaucrat that can. I should just line up at the government grocery store and let them hand me my weekly ration of the correct eggs.
Now of course which eggs I buy is a trivial issue and Krugman would almost certainly say such a wide choice at free-market grocery stores is a perfectly fine thing. His issue is with more important things like which health insurance plan is best, what investments to make, and so on, and of course the problem of so many of us failing to read the fine print.
Yes, with choice comes risk, and sometimes we fail to account for the extent of the risk involved, and sometimes even an apparent sure-bet isn't. Krugman, like all Statists, suggest we need to be protected from such risk - and the only to do that is, of course, for government to limit our choices. Why does there need to be dozens of insurance plans each with varying options offered by so many competing companies? Let's just eliminate all that and let the government decide on, say, three absolutely great, safe, health plans you can choose from!
But then why even have three such choices? Surely everyone needs exactly the same plan - one that covers you for everything! What? You don't need to be covered for fertility treatments or sex-change operations and would rather not have to pay for that? Who are you to decide? You don't know how to decide. You cannot be trusted with such critical responsibilities!
The line up for your weekly allotment of white, random-sized, organic eggs won't be far behind.
Followed by your daily entitlement to two hour's of electricity compliments of the Federal Power Department.
But at least I don't have to worry about making the safe choice.