{"id":5001,"date":"2026-05-21T20:43:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T19:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/?p=5001"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:58:38","slug":"consumer-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/2026\/05\/21\/consumer-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Uberwaltigte-Dame-im-Supermarktchaos-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5023\" srcset=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Uberwaltigte-Dame-im-Supermarktchaos-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Uberwaltigte-Dame-im-Supermarktchaos-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Uberwaltigte-Dame-im-Supermarktchaos-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Uberwaltigte-Dame-im-Supermarktchaos-1536x961.png 1536w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Uberwaltigte-Dame-im-Supermarktchaos.png 1586w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a pervasive belief in the West that freedom means having many choices. Yet, there is reason to believe the opposite: that it be a system of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contrary to the common belief that flipping between videos alleviates boredom, <a href=\"https:\/\/neurosciencenews.com\/digital-swiping-boredom-27560\/\">a 2024 study<\/a> shows that swiping between short clips or fast-forwarding leads to higher levels of boredom and reduced satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1949 the average grocery store stocked 3700 products, the average supermarket today has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strategy-business.com\/article\/00046\">45000 products.<\/a><a href=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Economist Deirdre McCloskey estimated in 2006 that the variety of consumer choices available to the average person is approximately 100 million times greater than in preindustrial societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What conceivable utility does this serve?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every moment you spend making consumer choices is a moment that you are not working on your zen \u2014 which is the only thing that can lead to long-term satisfaction. When tomorrow&#8217;s next bargain or the latest fashion or your neighbor&#8217;s purchases can affect your satisfaction, your happiness becomes dependent on choices that <em>others<\/em> make.  You have lost your agency. The flood of choices has paradoxically made you less free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A plethora of consumer choices is a mental ghetto \u2014 a place where addicts seek quick highs from new features and better bargains.  You can never get well.  The solution? Another purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of simply choosing something that is good enough, we try to maximise what we can get with the money we have; we want <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/05\/12\/opinion\/decision-making-herbert-simon.html\">the best possible<\/a> instead of what merely satisfies our needs. This priority usually leads to disappointment. Fortunately, the disappointment can be overcome by fulfilling some new desire. See the beginning of this paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine a dark religion in which enlightenment is a sin.  How could that religion be run differently than the way capitalism is run? And how is capitalism not the one true state religion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If, in the coming years, someone proposes fewer, locally-produced products as a solution to rampant-capitalism, please do not react by defending your &#8216;freedom&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a pervasive belief in the West that freedom means having many choices. Yet, there is reason to believe the opposite: that it be a system of control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5534,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5001\/revisions\/5534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}