Less is More

American marketing and commercialism is a well-oiled machine that produces the world's best consumers. George Carlin has a bit in one of his more recent works where he talks about choice and how grocery stores may have 80 different kinds of mustard to choose from but the US still only has a 2-party political system. The perfect storm of consumerism meets meaningless choice leaving the shopper distracted in an infinite loop while more important things, such as a totally corrupt government, pass without notice.

When I showed Jarkko's mother around the giant grocery store I used to shop in back in Boston, the first question she asked was how I found the time to navigate all the aisles and choose which products I wanted. It was an astute observation, one I didn't have an explanation for other than I had grown accustomed to the ever increasing size of the US grocery stores for a decade or two. The market was small when compared to some of the larger ones with book stores, video rental, liquor stores, dry cleaning and other services included under the same roof as the groceries; shrines to the meaningless choice culminating in the final, "paper or plastic?". Shopping often left me so drained that asking me which kind of bag I wanted evoked only a blank stare or my asking the clerk to choose for me.

One of the things I like most about Finland is that the groceries are small and while there may not be 80 or even 8 kinds of mustard to choose from, I am not constantly taxed to ponder the differences between 5 brands of French Dijon vs. 4 brands of Dijonnaise. I've been known to stare at the wall of yogurt but aside from that I am happy to have enough variety without a deluge of mostly similar products to pick from on the usual shopping trip. If I want something weird or unusual I can always walk over to Stockmanns and wander aimlessly for an hour. If I want Cheez-its and M&Ms and ginger Altoids, I have family send me care packages and savour every morsel which is a welcome change from having anything and everything available at all times. Less choice is liberating.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz is a new book that explores the problem of how so many choices we are forced to make every day can leave us far less happy than what the Citizen Consumer mantra promises. The Wal*Mart shoppers of America won't read this book nor will they stop buying all the stuff they can fit into their carts, but I am finding some of the studies on the consumer society being published in the past few years to be a chance to understand how I, and the rest of the US, was molded into a Citizen Consumer and perhaps even hope for slowing down the mad embrace of unbridled want all over the globe.