The J-dogg and I were headed home, listening to Tavis Smiley on the local NPR station.
Tavis interviewed Barry Schwartz, a psychologist and author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, who said that all the choices we have in shopping is not a good thing. There is a problem with choice and abundance.
He said Bush's plan for choice among health plans will produce stress on those who need the health insurance the most, causing emotional and physical problems. He goes so far to say that the myriad of choices confronting each American contributes to clinical depression.
The solution? Schwartz said that people can get in a habit of appreciating what they have and figuring out the things for which they should be grateful and choose the time when to choose.
After listening for a couple minutes, philosopher J-dogg pointed out, laughing: "This guy is right. When you don't have a lot of cash, the choice between acid and cocaine can be very stressful. It's not drugs that causes grave emotional damage -- it's deciding which one you want when when you can't afford both."
Ah-h-h-h-h, yes. Drug addiction humor. I'll send that one to Reader's Digest.
Posted by Bill at January 26, 2004 02:15 PMWhich section do you suppose they'll publish it in... (see how memory serves here, haven't read it for many years...) Life in These United States or All in a Day's Work??? I'm not sure which one it would fit into better... I wonder which one pays better? :) There you go, another choice to be made...
Posted by: Keri at January 26, 2004 02:24 PMTo each his own choice
Posted by: Anji at January 26, 2004 03:15 PM