I'm not sure I'd agree. Personally I don't find choice debilatating, but I know plenty of people who do - my girfriend finds it very difficult to make choices, and has to research things to the Nth degree to ensure she's not making a wrong one, and a lot of the kids I teach find options anxiety to be a real problem. However, when faced with an area where there is choice but I have little information (such as buying a given spice in Tesco and there are 3 seemingly equivalent choices) I have experienced this.
I'd agree about the tagging on of the Corbyn bit at the end - I don't think it has anything to do with the article - but I'm not sure that the high priced choice you cite is necessarily the same thing?
I also know plenty of people who find lack of choice debilitating. Ramanujan - an Indian living in the UK was debilitated by the absence of Idlis. (In the modern world, Tesco has him covered.) I'm certainly unhappy in northwest Delhi when I can't find a decent dosa, pasta or croissant [1].
Minorities exist, and some of them really need those choices that paralyze your girlfriend. I think a better solution is for your girlfriend to learn coping skills than for my ex-girlfriend to suffer with Indian shampoo that doesn't work for African hair.
[1] Or at least such things are 1.5 hours away in Khan market.
We should probably distinguish between range and choice here - between things that the consumer can see are not the same, and things where they can't see the difference.
Choosing from "croissant, bagel, loaf" is much easier than choosing from "white sandwich tin loaf A, white sandwich tin loaf B, white sandwich tin loaf C".
We should definitely distinguish between different consumers.
I personally have always drawn fine distinctions between different types of loaf. At one time I could barely tell the difference between naan and roti.
A friend of mine - who can easily distinguish between paratha, lecha paratha, kerala paratha and methi paratha - can barely tell the difference between croissant and loaf.
So what are you proposing? Taking away my artisinal whole grain sourdough loaf, or taking away her lecha paratha?
I'm not proposing anything specific, and I'm certainly not proposing "taking away" anything. Just noting that for sheer logistical reasons not every shop can stock every exact item, and more similar products are easier to substitute.
I assume you are referring to the mathmatician. It's odd because reading what you said makes me think I'd rather a diversity of product types, but I care less about having more than one of each type. Having said that, Tesco stock a Jamaican stout (Dragon), and for about a year, they didn't stock it. And it intrinsically annoyed me. They did replace with a like product after a while (Guiness version), but I didn't like that.
Which makes me aware that you can get fussy over different brands/tastes. Beer is a good example actually.
There was something that really bugged me about being offered the product and then having it withdrawn, it's replacement wasn't enough.
But this is not lack of choice. It's lack of availability. Wouldn't one good brand of pasta solve most of your pasta needs? Do you really feel like you'd still be unhappy unless you had 10 shapes of pasta each made from one of three different grains, each available from two or three different brands?
The fact that I don't eat fusilli very much doesn't mean that other people don't.
The thought experiment surrounding the removal of choice is not the removal of choices that other people make. It's the removal of your favorite choices, particularly if you are a minority.
I'd agree about the tagging on of the Corbyn bit at the end - I don't think it has anything to do with the article - but I'm not sure that the high priced choice you cite is necessarily the same thing?