[lbo-talk] the gains from variety

Michael Dawson -PSU mdawson at pdx.edu
Thu Mar 11 11:10:06 PST 2004


Michael Perelman's new book ms:

consumer sovereignty turns out to be a quite constricted form of
> sovereignty

Of course, consumer sovereignty is a double myth: People aren't consumers, we're product-users. And ordinary people are not sovereign over their product choices. We merely have a veto.

While I'm at it, I'd also say that the costs of choice overload, replacement searches, etc., are all good reasons to criticize capitalism, which actually (despite its propaganda about maximizing choices) obsolesces some products people might prefer to stay on offer. It is not, however, a good argument against wide product variety. People should be allowed to vote with their wallets, right? Socialism should strive to increase, not decrease commoners' abilities to do this.



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