Choice...

The freedom to choose.  It is not just a quaint saying.

A competitive marketplace not only provides the buyer the enjoyment of options (uniqueness or conformity, quality or quantity, economy or fashion, etc.) it forces sellers to be efficient, and to conform to what people want.  Yes, sellers will be wrong sometimes, but only by being wrong, and exploring, will sellers learn what buyers want exactly.

[ The White House is saying that the insurance plans that people are being dropped from were not good plans - but was anybody "forced" into those plans?  The Left says yes, by greedy employers who do not want to pay for better plans, or by greedy insurance providers who do not want to provide better plans.  But what the dropped consumers are learning is that there are more expensive plans out there - but does that mean "better?"  The power of government is being used to force consumers to pay for these plans, but then the power of government has to be used to subsidize these plans with OPM - Other People's Money.  We already have this in Medicare - it is called the Doc Fix.  Doctors are forced to accept Medicare at lower prices...and then the Government pays them back with OPM.  ]

If a car company is making great cars, entertaining commercials, and providing great service...but not at a price sufficient to cover the cost of all that...the car company will learn to cut back somewhere, or raise prices.  Maybe the car company decides to pay employees less, or not advertise during the Superbowl (who buys a car because of a funny, well timed add?).  Or, the government will give OPM to the car company - and the car company will not learn what buyers want, or what workers are willing to work for.


I wanted to purchase a new hat.  I have one in mind, it has a logo on the front, mesh in the back, slouch style, lightweight, adjustable.  I went to a website.  There were 246 options.  Below are just 10% of the choices.


Choice is a good thing*...

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

I like all these hats, but I will only part with my money for some of them.  #12 and #23 are in the running - but you never know when ordering a picture on the Internet.

As buyers decide not to buy certain hats, the sellers will stop making them.  Unless the sellers drop the price, enticing more buyers to choose them.

Thank God the government does not care about headware...yet.

Me being me, I will likely not make my purchase decision based on these pictures, as I can not try them on.  But, if I could try it on, and I liked the way it fit, price would not matter.

(*But there is a real meaning behind it - we can not "choose" when life begins...but that is another post)