The Paradox of Choice

Dr. Schwartz makes several key points in his video on the paradox of choice. One of the key things is that life is all about making choices. Therefore, it is important to choose the right decision from a list of alternatives. Supermarkets offer salads from many companies. The duty of the consumer is to choose the salad that he feels is the best. Dr. Schwartz argues that the need to choose makes people miserable. It mainly happens because of real and anticipated regret that occurs after choosing a particular alternative. After making a decision, it is common for people to feel that they should have selected a different option. Opportunity costs also affect the choices made. People start seeing advantages of an option not selected. In addition, escalation of expectations occurs because of having many choices. People start perceiving that products can do more tasks than they actually can do. Self-blame occurs also because of many choices. This happens in cases when a selected option fails. The speaker also talked about the official dogma that he does not support. It states that maximizing welfare means maximizing freedom and choice. More choice does not necessarily mean more freedom, and more freedom does not mean more welfare.
Dr. Schwartz agrees with several economic principles learnt. One of the principles is the problem of choice. Economists argue that resources are scarce, and therefore it is necessary to make a choice on which the goods and services to produce. The choice raises a problem, since it is difficult for producers to reasonably select the type of good to produce from a list of alternatives. The problem of choice also occurs during allocation of the firm’s resources. A company may not have enough funds to finance many projects. Therefore, it needs to choose the projects to fund. The author also agrees with the principle of the importance of maximizing welfare in the society. Welfare can be maximized in the society by creating equality in income distribution. It will help in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor people in the society. Moreover, welfare will result in improving the living standards in the community. He also agreed with the economic principle of the opportunity cost. The opportunity cost refers to the cost of an alternative that has to be forgone in order to pursue a certain action. Dr. Schwartz argued that the opportunity cost caused paralysis in decision making because people view attractive features in options that have been forgone. Nevertheless, Dr. Swartz disagreed with several economic principles. One of the principles that he does not support is that maximizing freedom and choice leads to maximizing of welfare. When people have a lot of alternatives to choose from, they are likely to make choices that they will regret later.
I agree with Dr. Schwartz in several ways. I believe life is a matter of choices. Success is determined by choosing the correct alternative. Therefore, it is important for people to take time before making choices. While choosing a career, people should invest time in analysis and select the right career in order to avoid regret and self-blame. I also agree with the fact that many choices obstruct people’s chance to make the correct decision. Many decision alternatives slows down the decision making process. This situation can be illustrated when a person goes to the supermarket to buy a particular product. The fact that supermarkets display a lot of goods may slow down the consumers’ purchasing decision. I also agree with the notion of self-blame originating from many decision alternatives that a person has. An individual is not confident after making the decision, and this may discourage risk taking.

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