Virginia Postrel critiques the grumpy new meme that we've got too many choices today, that our happiness is suffering from choice overload.

[Why in my day we didn't have swiss, feeta or what's this...munster cheese? We had two choices: American cheese, or no cheese. And we were dang proud to get it!]

Life, liberty (which includes the idea of more choices), and happiness go together. And as Postrel suggests, when faced with new choices, often we'll just stick with what's familiar. Others who were marginally less satisfied with the familiar may make a change.

But increased choice benefits everybody. The grandmother who never changed from AT&T basic long-distance service is getting a better deal today than twenty years ago because we all have other options.

There's a dark side to this meme that needs to be watched for. If it becomes conventional wisdom that there are too many choices, who's going to decide what choices need to be done away with?

Don't laugh, it's already happening. Part of the social security debate is exactly this - "we can't allow some to choose to have private accounts, the choice might stress people out."