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Book Review: The Choice Between Life And Death And Everything In Between, Lee A. Harris

Lee A Harris

In his recent book, the Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz, a behavioral psychologist at Swarthmore College, says what some of us have been thinking all along: Too much choice is not a good thing. People fail to make good decisions and their tendency to err is only exacerbated by expanding choice. Accordingly, Professor Schwartz argues that, because of the abundance of options, markets are failing to do what markets are supposed to do: maximize individual welfare. A counterpoint to the plain-vanilla economic analysis, Schwartz posits that an increased number of options may actually reduce overall utility, not increase it. This …