La dolce vita

In his book The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz offers a critique on what he describes as a fundamental dogma of the Western industrialized world. He asserts this fundamental dogma as: maximizing the welfare of citizens through maximizing the individual freedoms of those citizens. On the question of facilitating this freedom, it is assumed that freedom is a function of choice. Increased choice means increased freedom, increased freedom means increased welfare. This, Schwartz suggests, arrives at a paradox. To summarize his argument:

1. If we maximize freedom, then we maximize welfare.
2. If we maximize choice, then we maximize freedom.
3. Maximized choice is excessive choice.
4. Excessive choice is overwhelming.
5. It then follows that being overwhelmed is maximized welfare???
6. Conclusion: some choice is better than no choice, but it does not follow that more choice is better than some choice.

There are psychological repercussions of maximal choice; maximal becomes excessive. A fundamental revolution in view not of potential, but missed opportunities results from this phenomenon. It can be said that from the sheer number of choices available in the industrialized world, the odds of making the most choiceworthy decision are never in our favor. There is no room for surprise; our levels of expectation and standards are impossibly high to the point that it impedes the satisfaction from the choices we make. Fundamental attribution error -- the tendency for an individual to place blame on situational circumstances rather than oneself -- fails to come to aid our self-efficacy. An elementary shift in culpability results from this self-determinism as the decision rest entirely on the decision-maker. The increase in choices for a given decision invariably increases the need to justify the decision. Thus, a culture of consumer escapism undermines itself, resulting in considerably lesser satisfaction with the freedoms it implemented to enjoy.